Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Sis Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1910. 
VOL. LXXV.—No. 13. 
No. 127 Franklin St. New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1910, 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, 1S73. 
WARNING. 
In the Adirondacks the deer hunting season 
opened Sept. 16, and a number of hunters have 
gone there to take advantage of the presumed 
tameness of the tieer for the first few days. 
Many deer will no doubt be killed, but it will 
not take them long to become aware of the fact 
that the season has opened. 
With the killing of the deer is likely to come 
also the killing of some of the hunters. This is 
a natural result of the ambition of persons wholly 
without hunting experience to use modern rifles 
in the woods. In the excitement of striving to 
kill a deer such persons are likely to fire at some 
moving object which the}' suppose to be a deer, 
but which may be a man. In the United States 
the number .of people each year shot in mis¬ 
take for game probably exceeds all the whites 
killed by dangerous game in Africa. The -warn¬ 
ings that he has read and the lessons taught by 
the experience of others seem all to be forgotten 
by the inexperienced hunter in the excitement 
caused by the sight of some moving object which 
he supposes to be the hoped-for game. 
In the woods there is only one safe rule— 
never to fire at anything unless the hunter sees 
distinctly and certainly what it is that he aims 
at. The man who through his own carelessness 
and impetuosity kills or wounds a fellow-man 
must carry around with him for his whole life 
a burden of shame and regret that he has as¬ 
sumed solely through his own heedlessness. 
Let the young hunter remember that the best 
hunters are the most patient ones, and that there 
is usually plenty of time to learn just what it 
is that is moving in the distance. Let him re¬ 
member, too, that the rifles of to-day carry a 
long' distance, and that in the older States the 
woods are likely to contain many hunters. This 
advice should be heeded in all the States east 
and north where deer hunters abound. 
Ihe list of hunting accidents about to begin 
ought this year to he shorter than it has been in 
the past. 
Press dispatches of recent date credit to Dr. 
\\ . 1 . Grenfell the statement that the Labrador 
fisheries will probably prove a failure this season, 
and that the blow will fall heavily on the New¬ 
foundland fishermen and their families. 
WHAT WILL MICHIGAN DO? 
The Michigan Association, which held its an¬ 
nual meeting last week at Owosso, contains 
many earnest workers. Under the able guidance 
of W. B. Mershon it ought to be a power for 
good in that land of game and fish and should 
accomplish great things. 
One of the first matters to which it should 
turn its attention is the increase in its member¬ 
ship. Legislatures rarely act except in response 
to a popular demand, and with the average legis¬ 
lator nothing counts for so much as numbers. 
The Michigan Association needs additional mem¬ 
bers of the right sort—members who are pos¬ 
sessed of so much enthusiasm that they will be¬ 
come propagandists in their different sections, 
to expound to others the importance of the 
preservation of natural things. They must dis¬ 
cuss this so simply and plainly that even people 
who are not especially interested in the subject 
may understand that it is for their own interest 
that Michigan’s abundant game and fish and 
forests shall be preserved for themselves and 
for their children. Until the citizens of Michi¬ 
gan can be made to realize this and to feel an 
active interest in such preservation, the work of 
securing and enforcing good game laws for the 
State will not go forward as rapidly as it should, 
but when the people make a real demand for a 
change, legislators will be quick to recognize it 
and to respond. 
Michigan should change her attitude as to con¬ 
servation, and game protectors all over the coun¬ 
try are waiting for her to do so. She has lagged 
behind most of her sister States and the Prov¬ 
inces of Canada in certain matters of game and 
fish preservation. It is time a change took place. 
GAME REFUGES FOR SASKATCHEWAN: 
In the Province of Saskatchewan in Western 
Canada a long step was taken last year for the 
protection, preservation and propagation of 
native birds and animals. The Province, with 
the consent of the Dominion Government, con¬ 
stituted the forest reserves within its boundaries 
game refuges, and all shooting, hunting, trapping 
and carrying of firearms within the boundaries 
of the reserves was prohibited. 
This is a step toward the, conservation of our 
native fauna which a few far-seeing people in 
the United States have been urging on Congress 
for fifteen or twenty years, but Congress has de¬ 
clined to enact any such legislation, although 
the Attorney-General of the United States has 
declared that it might properly be done. For 
the last few years it has been believed that 
Speaker Cannon and a number of other in¬ 
fluential members of the House were opposed 
to any such action. 
That the establishment of such game reserves 
would result in the perpetuation and great in¬ 
crease of native birds and animals has been 
demonstrated in more than one of the national 
parks of Canada and in the Yellowstone Na¬ 
tional Park. The only question then is as to 
whether the perpetuation of these native species 
is desirable. About this it would hardly seem 
that there can be two opinions. On economic 
as well as other grounds these wild creatures 
should be preserved. The growth of the con¬ 
servation idea within the past few years gives 
every reason to hope that some step of this kind 
may before long be taken. 
In this matter, as in others dealing with the 
protection of the natural resources of North 
America, the Dominion of Canada has pointed 
out a way which the United States should 
follow. 
The program of the Hunting Congress, held 
in Vienna the first week in September, was of 
wide scope. Among the subjects that came up 
for discussion were these: The importance of 
hunting and shooting from the point of view of 
national economy and finance; the statistics of 
game; the German system of marking game and 
the possibility of introducing it elsewhere; the 
international value involved in fur and feathers 
used for dress or decoration; the importance of 
game as a national food supply; the possibility 
of standardizing the weights and measurements 
of sporting guns, gunpowder and shot; the vari¬ 
ous diseases to which different forms of game 
animals and birds are liable; the possibility of 
international protection for migratory and game 
birds, more especially quail, snipe, duck, wild 
goose and sea birds not useful for food; princi¬ 
ples which should underlie legislation. Quite an 
undertaking for a convention lasting four days 
only. 
* 
It v*ts anticipated that, whatever the conclu¬ 
sions reached by the court of arbitration at The 
Hague in reference to the Newfoundland fish¬ 
eries dispute, they would be decisive. For a 
time after the rendering of the decision both 
England and the United States claimed the vic¬ 
tory as to certain divisions of the main question. 
It now appears that in both nations opinions are 
as diversified as the subjects treated. The press 
of America is by no means in agreement on the 
question save as to one point—it concedes that 
the rulings of the court may affect us less than 
was to be expected. 
R 
In a sermon before a large New York city 
audience last Sunday a well-known clergyman 
said, in part: 
Talk about conservation of natural resources provides 
politicians and parties nvith platforms and a theme for 
speeches to gather votes, but natural resources cannot 
be exhausted. Let us cut down our forests. We can 
grow them as fast as they will be needed. 
Whenever one necessity is exhausted God shows us 
another natural product to take its place. * * * Every 
new need is supplied quickly. * * * You may think 
me a fool for talking like that. I am not a fool — you are. 
Apparently the reference to himself was born 
of conviction. 
