Forest and Stream 
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1908. 
< VOL. LXX.—No. 8. 
) No. 346 Broadway, New York, 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer. 
346 Broadway, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
NEW JERSEY’S DUTY. 
The first gun in the legislative battle in 
behalf of- New Jersey’s much persecuted game 
was fired at Trenton last week by the Asso¬ 
ciation of New Jersey Sportsmen for the Pro¬ 
tection of Fish and Game. A report of the 
meeting is found in another column. 
New Jersey is the last of the North Atlantic 
States to cling to antique beliefs and methods. 
The provinces of Canada, most of the New 
England States, then New York, and last of 
all, Connecticut, have forbidden spring shoot¬ 
ing, and in good time their residents will re¬ 
ceive an abundant reward in a greater number 
of birds and far better shooting in the autumn 
than they had when the shooting season lasted 
through the months of autumn, winter and 
spring. 
This is true for many reasons. Birds, un¬ 
harried in the spring, are in better shape to 
breed and will presumably raise larger broods 
than if constantly chased from place to place 
and allowed no rest. In sections protected in 
spring, birds will breed in many places where 
they would not if they were constantly striving 
to escape the gunner. Each year more local 
birds will be bred, and these birds will tend to 
give shooting in the early part of the season, 
and, as the weather grows colder, will act as 
decoys to bring down their migrating fellows. 
A number of species of ducks, but notably the 
black duck, the blue-winged teal and the mal¬ 
lard, with probably some of the diving ducks, 
used to breed abundantly in our Middle States, 
and, in secluded localities, will do so again 
if undisturbed in the spring. This is especially 
true of New Jersey, a State cut up by broad 
rivers and arms of the sea which are bordered 
by extensive marshes on which abundant food 
grows. Last season, as we are told, the Troy 
Meadow Club, whose grounds are on the upper 
waters of the Passaic River, raised from its 
decoy black ducks no less than sixty young 
ones. The black duck has always bred on 
Long Island, though in small numbers, when 
spring shooting was permitted. 
Good evidence of the willingness of undis¬ 
turbed birds to breed close to the haunts of 
men is shown by the breeding of coots and 
gallinules among the crowded railroad yards 
in Long Island City, and near the railroad 
tiacks at Newark, New Jersey. The tameness 
which wild birds acquire when unpersecuted 
is exemplified on the Thames in London, or at 
Palm Beach, in Florida. 
The men who make their living from the 
gunners who visit Barnegat Bay and other 
seashore resorts bitterly oppose any shorten¬ 
ing of the season for either ducks or snipe; 
but on the broad principle which seeks for the 
greatest good of the greatest number, their 
objections should be ignored. Some of them 
aver that the inland sportsmen who have no 
ducks want to shorten up the season of the 
bay men who have the ducks, but a glance at 
the map of the State of New Jersey shows the 
folly of such a statement, for everywhere there 
are lakes, water courses and marshes, where 
each autumn there might be fair duck shooting. 
It is time that New Jersey should now put 
herself in line with the best sentiment of the 
times. Fair play and self interest alike call on 
New Jersey sportsmen to assert themselves. 
DR. GRENFELL’S REINDEER. 
The third chapter in the story of Dr. Gren¬ 
fell s efforts to introduce Lapland reindeer into 
Labrador and Newfoundland has been written 
by our correspondent in St. John’s, and is 
printed in another column. It seems highly 
probable that those to follow from time to time 
will relate the ultimate success of the under¬ 
taking. 
Dr. Grenfell is to be congratulated on the 
success, so far, of his efforts to assist the peo¬ 
ple of Newfoundland and Labrador. These ani¬ 
mals were in such good condition after their 
long journey to the coast at Bergen and their 
rough passage across the Atlantic in a small 
steamship, of three weeks’ duration, that they 
stampeded on being hoisted overboard on to 
the ice at Cremaillere. None was lost in cross¬ 
ing. A few were drowned by breaking through 
the ice in the stampede, but the majority were 
in fine fettle when they were received in St. 
Anthony. Small fears, therefore, need be en¬ 
tertained as to their immediate future, as the 
mosses and lichens of the Northeast country 
are abundant and furnish the food they require. 
The increase among this herd of reindeer; the 
interest which it is anticipated the people will 
take in adapting them to their needs; and the 
hoped-for ultimate result—the domestication of 
the native caribou—will all be watched keenly 
by American naturalists. 
Dr. John C. Barron, whose name is familiar 
to New York city sportsmen, died in this city 
recently of typhoid fever, at the age of seventy- 
one. Dr. Barron was a Yale man, and took his 
medical degree at the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in 1861, just in time to serve in the 
Civil War. He was surgeon of the Seventh Regi¬ 
ment f 1 om 1863 to 1871. Dr. Barron was an en¬ 
thusiastic sportsman, very much devoted to yacht¬ 
ing, in which he won many races. He had been 
rear commodore of the New York, Seawanhaka 
and Corinthian yacht clubs. He was very fond 
of gunning and had belonged to the Currituck 
Shooting Club, the Narrows Island Club, and 
other wildfowl associations. He was a member 
of many yacht and social clubs. 
K 
Sportsmen who take their vacations in Florida 
seem to think the game situation there is hope¬ 
less, in so far as the natives are concerned, but 
if visitors from other States go to Florida and 
kill game and fish by wholesale, it cannot be ex¬ 
pected that the natives will reform their methods 
and cease to do that which is done by persons 
who kill not for the pot, but for a record, and 
thus set the worst sort of an example for all who 
follow after them, be they natives or nonresi¬ 
dents. As a rule the res dents of a district, who do 
not kill game for market, take very light toll 
from the forests and waters, so long as the supply 
is abundant; but if they see that it is being re¬ 
duced rapidly by strangers, it is reasonable to 
suppose that they will not abide by laws that are 
flagrantly violated by visitors who they believe 
to be well informed sportsmen. 
The death of Thomas Wilson has been an¬ 
nounced in dispatches from Asheville. He passed 
away at the age of eighty-five years at his home 
in Yancy county, North Carolina. He was a 
famous guide in the mountains of his home 
State, and was credited with a record of more 
than one hundred bears. In stature Mr. Wilson 
was a veritable giant, and his weight was nearly 
250 pounds. It was “Big Bill ’ Wilson who found 
the body of Prof. Elisha Mitchell of Yale when 
the latter lost his life on the mountain that bears 
his name. 
At Herkimer, N. Y., on Feb. 13 Charles N. 
Klock, a former State game protector, was con¬ 
victed on a charge of conspiracy to steal tim¬ 
ber frohi State lands and sentenced to serve 
a term of imprisonment of not less than three 
years. A short time ago we announced the con¬ 
viction of Harvey Gaylord who, with Klock, dis¬ 
appeared when indictments against them were 
returned. 
K 
Cassius C. Scranton died at his home in 
Winsted, Conn., Feb. 15,-aged sixty-two years. k 
-Fie was a fishing companion of the Hon. Grover 
Cleveland and was rather proud of the fact that 
he took upon himself the blame and paid the 
fine when his party was arrested on Lake Gar¬ 
field for having short bass in its possession, sev¬ 
eral years ago. 
