374 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 7, 1908. 
North American Annual. 
Quebec, Feb. 22. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The annual meeting of the North American 
Fish and Game Protective Association was held 
at Albany on the 12th and 13th inst., under the 
presidency of Senator Jotham P. Allds. 
The attendance was large and representative; 
so much so, in fact, that Senator Allds, after 
the reception accorded to the delegates by 
Governor Hughes, told them that the Governor, 
in conversation with him had remarked upon 
the representative character of the gentlemen 
presented to him, many of whom he knew either 
personally or by reputation, and whose con¬ 
clusions, he was quite sure, would carry with 
them considerable weight. 
In his welcome of the members of the associ¬ 
ation, the Governor made special reference to 
the presence of several Canadians, expressing 
pleasure at the association of prominent experts 
belonging to the two countries, in support of 
law and order, and of the improvement and 
harmonizing, where possible, of the existing 
legislation concerning fish and game. 
Senator Allds, in his address of welcome, ex¬ 
pressed the belief that if the assembly had been 
held just a little later, it might have become a 
jollification meeting over the triumph of the 
policy so long expounded by the association, 
for he understood that the arangements for the 
completion of a treaty between the two coun¬ 
tries were well under way, as a result of the 
pleasant visit made a short time ago to Ottawa 
by the Secretary of State; and that some of its 
provisions would include a settlement of the 
matters in dispute regarding the fisheries. He 
referred to the interest taken in the matter by 
Governor Hughes, whose logical letter on the 
subject to Secretary Root was reported to have 
reached even to Ottawa. 
At no previous meeting of the association 
were so many valuable papers of scientific im¬ 
portance presented, while many of the reports 
from the different States and Provinces repre¬ 
sented in the association were replete with in¬ 
terest. This is particularly the case in regard 
to those from New Brunswick, Maine, Massa¬ 
chusetts, New York and Quebec. Some of the 
others had chiefly reference to the formation 
and dimensions of local associations. 
Mr. Richards, of Boston, presented a most 
interesting report from Massachusetts. It re¬ 
ferred to the new policy of the State in re¬ 
gard to the protection of lobsters, which in¬ 
stead of prohibiting the taking of all lobsters 
under ten inches, now proposed to protect only 
those under nine inches long and over eleven 
inches, the object being to afford complete free¬ 
dom from capture to the large egg-bearing 
lobsters. There was also reference to the ap¬ 
propriation of $2,000 for the purchase of land on 
Martha’s Vineyard for the protection of the 
eastern pinnated grouse or heath hen. to which 
private enterprise had added $2,338. There is 
now, it seems, some prospect of the preserva¬ 
tion of this game, which although lately so 
nearly exterminated, was yet, in the early days 
of the colonies, so abundant, that it was pro¬ 
vided in the indentures of apprentices that they 
were not to be fed upon the heath hen more 
than twice a week. Mr. Richards mentioned the 
nonresident sportsmen’s license of ten dollars 
in Massachusetts, as something of which he was 
quite ashamed. All deer in Massachusetts were 
protected by law, the only killing permitted be¬ 
ing of animals interfering with farmer’s crops. 
There were now probably 5,000 deer in the 
State, and it was calculated that about 140 had 
been killed either by accident or by farmers in 
dfense of their crops. 
Dr. Finnie, of Montreal, reporting for the 
Province of Quebec, expressed the hope that 
the Missisquoi Bay difficulty, which had lately 
assumed a new phase, would soon be satisfac¬ 
torily settled as a result of the manner in which 
it had been taken up at Ottawa and Washing¬ 
ton. He also declared himself in favor of a 
shorter season in the Province of Quebec for 
the killing of big game, and for a. further ex¬ 
tension qf the entire close season for the sale of 
partridge and the trapping of beaver, which 
under existing legislation would terminate next 
November. 
General Butterfield reported from Vermont 
that there had been no session of the Legisla¬ 
ture since the last meeting of the association. 
Mr. Chas. H. Wilson, of Glens Falls, not 
only reported as to the work in New York 
State, but supported with a very exhaustive and 
thorough paper, a resolution favoring interna¬ 
tional control of the fisheries of the Great 
Lakes. The resolution was adopted the follow¬ 
ing day after a favorable report upon it from the 
executive committee, and its author was warmly 
congratulated by all present upon the thorough¬ 
ness of his paper, which is to be published in full. 
One of the disappointments of the meeting 
was that Professor Edward E. Prince, of 
Ottawa, who had prepared two papers for the 
convention, was prevented by indisppsition from 
being present. Another was the unavoidable 
absence of the Hon. W. E. Meehan, Superin¬ 
tendent of Fisheries for Pennsylvania, whose 
paper on “Aims and Duties of States in Fish 
Culture and Protective Work” was read by the 
secretary. 
An exceedingly thoughtful paper was read by 
Mr. G, H. Richards on “Certain Neglected 
Means of Fish and Game Protection,” in which 
particular stress was laid upon the desirability 
of an increase of fish and game food, and of the 
destruction of vermin inimical to fish and game, 
and the importance was urged of a simplifica¬ 
tion of fish and game laws, the protection of 
eggs, etc. 
On the evening of Feb. 12 a special session 
of the association was held in the Senate 
Chamber at the Capitol, when addresses were 
delivered by Dr. William T. Hornaday, of the 
Zoological Park, New York, and by Dr. Barton 
Warren Everman, assistant in charge of Di¬ 
vision of Scientific Inquiry, Bureau of Fisheries, 
Washington. Dr. Hornaday took his hearers 
with him on a trip through some of the moun¬ 
tains of British Columbia, where big game still 
abounds, and where he is anxious that proper 
steps should be taken for its future protection 
for all time. The audience was delighted with 
Dr. Hornaday’s talk, and also with the splendid 
pictures of mountain goat and other game pro¬ 
cured among the cliffs of the Rockies at a tre¬ 
mendous risk of life and limb. Dr. Evermann 
described the journey made by him in 1904 to 
Volcano Creek in the Southern High Sierras of 
California, in search of the famous golden trout 
of that region, which Stewart Edward White 
had described to President Roosevelt as in 
danger of extinction. Many specimens of this 
gorgeous trout were secured, and some of them 
were painted on the spot. 
At the following day’s sitting of the associa¬ 
tion, votes of thanks were pased to Drs. Horna¬ 
day and Evermann, and they were both elected 
honorary members of the association. It was 
also unanimously resolved to petition the 
British Columbian Government to set aside as 
a public park the proposed Goat Mountain 
preserve, in which Dr. Hornaday found so many 
specimens of the rarer species of Rocky Moun¬ 
tain big game. 
Other important recommendations made by 
the association, after reference of the same to 
the executive committee and careful considera¬ 
tion therein, werq that all revenue collected by 
fines and fees under fish and game laws, should 
be used for fish and game protection; that the 
hearty support by the association of the bill for 
the setting apart of the proposed White Moun¬ 
tain and Appalachian Reserve, now before Con¬ 
gress, be signified to the Senator and Member 
of Congress having the same in charge, and that 
in the opinion of this association, National, 
State and Provincial governments should set 
apart as large areas of public lands as possible, 
which are unsuited for settlement, for the pro¬ 
tection of .forest growth, fish and game, and for 
the use of the people as public recreation 
grounds. 
This last recommendation was adopted in lieu 
of a motion declaring opposition to the ac¬ 
quisition by individuals or groups of individuals 
of tracts of wild land for the purpose of forming 
private game or fish preserves. While the asso¬ 
ciation desires to see wild lands retained in 
government hands for public use as much as 
possible, the adoption of the resolution as 
originally proposed would have been read as a 
condemnation of the grants made by the. 
Province of Quebec in so many instances to 
American sportsmen, of wild lands or waters 
quite unnecessary for the use of the general 
public, the fish and game in which, and in the 
contiguous lands and waters, were thus secured 
protection which would have been otherwise 
entirely lacking. 
Hon. Leroy T. Carleton, of Maine, read, by 
special invitation, a practical paper on the guide 
and licensing systems of his State. In the 
course of his address, Mr. Carleton said that 
the 2,000 licensed guides of Maine earned last 
year $300,000 in guiding. Incompetent ones, or 
those who failed to abide by the laws were 
gradually weeded out, and by the license system 
the fish and game commission was able to learn 
from the annual reports of the guides, exactly 
what game had been killed and what hunters 
had visited the State. He justified the non¬ 
resident license law, on the ground that those 
who enjoy the chase should pay for the protec¬ 
tion of game, and that it was' impossible to 
have the legislature appropriate the sum neces¬ 
sary for the payment of wardens to assure such 
protection. With the $40,000 raised from the 
nonresident license, Mr. Carleton said that 
Maine paid its wardens, and he only regretted 
that the license fee had not been made $25 
instead of $15, and that there was not also a 
resident license fee of $1.00 or $2.00. The non¬ 
resident fee was popular in Maine, and there 
was no demand at all for the repeal of the law 
imposing it. 
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