November, 1918 
FOREST AND S T R E A M 
651 
Still, it is a good many ducks. If we were to pack 
them into barrels, at one hundred per barrel, we would 
have thirteen barrels, and some over for good measure. 
Quite a lot to use, or to give away. Even a popular 
man might be forced into the outer realm of his wife s 
relations to get rid of so many. 
Understand, this is not aimed at the members of the 
Blue Wing Hunting Club. They will forgive us if we 
use their record merely to point out the danger that this 
sudden revival of good duck shooting is apt to bring 
about in other sections, and the necessity existing for ad¬ 
ditional legislation that will establish a season bag limrt, 
no matter how plentiful the fall migration may become. 
The old adage concerning the goose—in this case the 
returning duck—that lays the golden egg, has particular 
application here. 
ORGANIZATION 
T HE advantages of organization over individual effort 
are well understood and were clearly shown recently 
in the passage of the Migratory Bird Law. The Ameri¬ 
can Game Protective Association, by inducing othei 
sportsmen and game protectors, to work solidly togethei, 
and with it, carried through Congress the law placing 
migratory birds under Federal control and brought about 
the treaty between Great Britain and the United States. 
Hardly less striking, though on a smaller scale, is the 
local work done since 1914 by an association organized 
to secure the enforcement of the Fishery Laws and bet¬ 
ter protection of the trout and salmon in Cape Breton. 
For ten or fifteen years before this, trout and salmon 
there had been steadily decreasing. The laws for their 
protection were adequate, but were not enforced. Net¬ 
ting, spearing, dynamiting and lime poisoning, beginning 
in a small way, at length became general. There were 
more than 200 fish wardens—but practically all were 
political appointments—expected to do political work, 
and paid only from $40 to $60 a year. They rendered 
little service to the Government. 
These conditions led to the formation of the Victoiia 
Fisheries’ Protective Association, of which George Ken- 
nan—famous explorer and authority on Russia—became 
Secretary. Mr. Kennan reported the conditions prevail¬ 
ing in Cape Breton to the Minister of Marine and Fisher¬ 
ies at Ottawa, and enlisted newspaper aid, writing ar¬ 
ticles on fish conservation, which were interesting and 
welcome to the public. He worked hard and wisely. 
In the two reports—for 1914-1915, and 1916-1918—is 
told what the Association has accomplished. The De¬ 
partment of Marine and Fisheries has adopted most of 
the changes in the fishery service urged by the Associa¬ 
tion in 1914, and for the first time in more than a genera¬ 
tion the fishery service of Cape Breton Island has been 
put on a business basis. The number of the guardians 
has been reduced and their pay largely increased; the 
Government now paying to 48 guardians the amount tnat 
four years ago it distributed among 219. The fish ate 
protected. 
The Association’s work has benefited the Government, 
the railroads, the general public and the members of the 
Association, who are scattered over much of Eastern 
Canada and Eastern United States. Through the activity 
and wise judgment of its Secretary the Association has 
accomplished a great public service in a region important 
in its capacity for producing a large supply of the finest 
game fish. The reward for this work will be an increased 
yield of fish that will furnish added sport and that will 
be profitable to Cape Breton by bringing to the island 
each summer an ever growing number of anglers who 
will spend there more money. 
And all this is due to George Kennan. 
DOGS AND CONSERVATION 
HIS country is imbued with the determination to win 
this war and what is more it is going to do so.’ All 
good Americans want to do their bit and most of them 
are doing it. Unfortunately, however, every once in a 
while one of those intellectual delinquents who believes 
that if he gets an idea he has done something, starts an 
agitation to save feed by killing off the dogs of the coun¬ 
try. Of course, every sane man knows that these rumors 
will never develop into action, but it does seem unfortu¬ 
nate as well as unexplainable that the idea should exist in 
any mind that the dog is the enemy and not the friend of 
man. The history of humanity is the history of the dog. 
They have come down through the ages together, and the 
friendship formed far back.in the days that men lived in 
caves and clothed themselves in skins was based upon the 
fact that they were of assistance to each other. In every 
period of man’s existence the dog has been man’s as¬ 
sistant and he is man’s assistant today, in fighting the 
great battle for humanity. Our faithful friends are doing 
their part on the Western ranges and in the hills of Scot¬ 
land guarding the flocks that are to feed our troops. They 
are the companions of the forest rangers who are pro¬ 
tecting the timber that is building the ships canning our 
men and supplies abroad. At the front they are guarding 
the trenches, carrying messages through shell swept fields, 
dragging machine guns and ammunition up to the firing 
lines and side by side with the noble men and women of 
the Red Cross seek out the wounded on the bloody plains 
of France. 
. The amount of food dogs consume is not worthy of 
consideration, for it would largely be wasted. Report 
after report that comes from the front relates the work 
the dogs are doing. Every government has recognized 
their importance and established departments for their 
training. 
The idea of killing off dogs to save food is so silly 
from every angle that we feel ashamed to even mention 
it in the columns of this paper. While the dog killing 
fanatic runs at large the faithful dog is doing his bit both 
here and abroad to win the battle in which humanity is 
now engaged, and is serving as faithfully today as he has 
in the ages that have passed. 
PIGEONS IN WAR TIME 
HE Government has requested sportsmen to refrain 
from shooting pigeons lest a despatch carrier should 
fall a victim. Some amusing tales of these birds come 
from the other side. General Kuhn is responsible for 
the story of one of the British divisions which was occu¬ 
pying a sector of the French front and had as its nearest 
neighbor a unit from Portugal. The Portuguese troops 
had no carrier pigeons, so the British commander decided 
to make them a gift of some birds to act as dispatch car¬ 
riers when other methods of communication were put out 
of commission. Six dozen or more birds were sent over 
by a detachment of Tommies who neglected or were un¬ 
able to explain their use, because of lingual difficulties, 
and the British command was very much surprised to 
receive a note from the Portuguese officers’ mess the next 
day saying that the pigeons had been roasted and proved 
a most welcome addition to trench fare. 
Carrier pigeons are by way of ranking with dogs 
as heroes of the front. In a British museum is a 
military pigeon which “died of wounds received in 
action.” It was hit by a bullet, which broke a leg and 
drove the message-carrier into its body. In spite of its 
wounds the brave little messenger struggled home to its 
loft, a distance of nine miles, and delivered the message. 
It died shortly afterwards—one of the heroes of war. 
