From Nova Scotia Game Fields. 
The past session of the Nova Scotian Legis¬ 
lature has been a most important one to sports- 
. men. For nearly thirty years the question of 
game preservation has been raised at every 
session of the House. The original game laws 
have been amended and changed until scarcely 
one of the sections remains as it originally 
stood. 
In the past the task of enforcing the game 
laws has been left to a body known as the Game 
Society. Almost all the members of that body 
, were citizens of Halifax, and until the with¬ 
drawal of the imperial forces about half the 
members were naval or military men. 
For divers reasons the society was unpopu - 
lar, not only to the lawless element, who would 
naturally object to anyone who interfered with 
them, but to many law-abiding sportsmen in the 
rural districts. With all its defects the Nova 
Scotia Game Society has 
done good work in the 
past. It saved the moose 
from extermination, and 
it has partially stocked 
the Province with red 
deer. Last year’s report 
shows some thirty fines 
collected for violations of 
the game act. There is s ,.. is • 
only one district in Nova 
Scotia where the “dog¬ 
ging” of moose is carried 
on in a clandestine way 
compared with ten dis¬ 
tricts in which it was 
carried on more or les^ 
openly twenty years ago. 
The snaring of moose 
and caribou is also very 
much on the decrease. 
Some counties are almost 
clear of snares. In the 
counties of Digby and 
Yarmouth, for example, Typical 
there are only three 
small districts where this most brutal method 
of catching game is still practiced. The Indians 
and guides destroy every snare they find. No 
one' can realize what this means until they 
cruise the old snaring grounds and see the 
spring holes and hedges which got in their 
work in past years. 
The present year will probably see the re¬ 
maining snaring grounds hack of Doucetteville 
and around Corberie in Digby county, and the 
remaining district in Yarmouth county raided 
and put out of action. 
The game act of last session abolished a non¬ 
political commission to deal with the matter 
of game protection. 
Three commissioners are to he chosen by the 
Go vernor in Council. They are to hold office 
during good behavior. The former agents of 
the Game Society are to he replaced by war¬ 
dens, nominated by the commission, who will 
also hold office irrespective of any political 
changes which may occur. 
The new act explicitly states that the wardens 
may arrest without warrant any person they find 
violating the game laws. They are ex-officio 
constables for the whole Province, and they 
have the power to seize and confiscate firearms 
which are illicitly used. 
It is not necessary to bring action in the 
county in which an offense was committed, and 
one justice of the peace can adjudicate. The 
following items will be of especial interest to 
the American tourist : 
(1) All alien camping and fishing parties 
must be accompanied by a licensed guide. 
(2) Unlicensed aliens are not allowed to 
carry firearms. Any constable or game warden 
can seize firearms illicitly taken to the woods 
by aliens on sight and arrest the owners. 
(3) No unlicensed alien can accompany a 
hunting party in any capacity. 
A BRITISH COLUMBIA MOUNTAIN VIEW, 
region where packing with ponies or burros is a necessity of 
(4) Shooting on the Lord’s day is prohibited. 
(5) A guide can only take in two aliens at a 
time. 
An American friend of your correspondent’s 
criticizes the new act as containing too many 
provisions dealing with foreigners, and too few 
dealing with the local poachers. I can quite 
understand his thinking so. It certainly seems 
hard that an American tourist who violates the 
game law should lose his gun or rifle in addi¬ 
tion to paying his fine, and a Canadian who is 
caught red-handed killing game in close season 
should escape with a pecuniary penalty alone. 
The loss of a valuable gun or rifle will practi¬ 
cally double the penalty on some tourist who 
has unwittingly brought himself within the 
reach of the law. A resident who knows or 
ought to know the law gets off at half price. 
One gross injustice has been rectified by the 
passing of this act. Under the act lately in force 
all moose heads killed by alien sportsmen in 
Nova Scotia had to be mounted in the Province 
before they were exported. The sending of a- 
moose head to a New Brunswick taxidermist 
was a technical offense. Under the new act, 
American sportsmen are allowed to take a head 
and hide out of the Province, provided they 
make affidavit that they killed the moose them¬ 
selves. The resident sportsman has still to send 
his trophies to the local taxidermist, pay what 
he chooses to demand, and put up with the 
work he does. 
Under the new act all game wardens are em¬ 
powered to administer oaths and take affidavits 
in their official capacity. 
Deer and caribou have been granted an abso¬ 
lute dose season until 1912. This season will 
probably be further extended, as caribou are 
very scarce, though reports say there is a small 
increase in the herds. The law allowing one 
moose to each hunter has been amended. It 
has been the custom for 
divers resident outlaws to 
kill four or five moose 
each year, taking one 
member of their family 
with them on each trip, 
and assigning the moose 
to a different individual 
each time. This evasion 
i^Sf of the law is dealt with 
3^. as follows in Section 4, 
sub-Section 2, of the new 
act : 
“If a moose he taken or 
killed by two or more 
persons hunting or pursu¬ 
ing it in company or at 
the same time, each of 
such persons, who, by 
shooting at it or other¬ 
wise, shall have attempted 
to kill or wound such 
moose, shall be deemed 
to have killed or taken it 
,ra ' r el. within this section.” 
As one man in Kings 
county is popularly reported to have killed four 
moose last year, and to have allowed one of his 
neighbor’s boys to administer the coup de grace 
to three of them, the wisdom of this amend 
ment will be apparent. E. F. L. Jenner. 
A Good Turkey Season. 
Rolling Fork. Miss., May 5.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: The season for wild turkeys 
closed May 1. According to Mississippi law Jan. 
r to May 1 is open season for them, and it has 
been years since so many large gobblers have 
been killed. Quite a number of our local hunters 
got four to eight or ten each. It was my good 
fortune to capture four handsome fellows with 
beards measuring from nine and one-half to 
eleven inches each, and several smaller ones, one 
and two years old. R. E. Stratton. 
