Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER i, 1910 . 
VOL. LXXV.-No. 14 
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, 1873: 
SHOOTING FATALITIES. 
The ink of the last issue of Forest and 
Stream was hardly dry when reports of acci¬ 
dents—so-called—in the Adirondack woods began 
to come in. The list is full of pathos. A son 
shot his father, a nephew' his uncle, a young man 
killed his best friend. In each case a wounding 
or a homicide was caused by carelessness. Under 
other conditions such an occurrence would be 
termed criminal carelessness, and might mean a 
term of imprisonment. 
These cases, however, will probably be defined 
by the coroners’ juries as accidents, and so be 
passed over and soon forgotten by all except the 
unfortunate persons who did the shooting. In¬ 
excusable and wicked as these occurrences are, 
their number is not likely to be lessened by 
wordy condemnation of the carelessness which 
causes them. They are the results of inexperi¬ 
ence and lack of self-control—faults of youth 
and of defective training. The lessons of life 
are to be learned by each one of us only in life’s 
hard school. The father cannot pass on to his 
son the experience that the years have taught 
him; he can only advise. But the son is likely 
to remember and to profit by the hard knocks 
that he himself receives. No man who goes 
hunting contemplates the possibility of shooting 
a man or of himself being shot, but the apparent 
nearness of game seems to drive out of the hun¬ 
ter’s mind every thought except that of securing 
the quarry. So he shoots at he knows not what, 
and too often with the saddest results. 
It is the duty of every experienced man who 
has to do with young persons going into the 
woods for deer, to talk to each of them about 
the use of his gun, and to impress on each the 
possibilities of danger which lurk within the 
weapon, and the importance of keeping this 
danger in mind, first of all, and all the time. 
Accidents with guns are very .frequent, but they 
are always due to carelessness or ignorance. If 
the experienced hunter would strive harder to 
make the inexperienced realize that in careless 
hands the gun is a constant source of danger, 
the number of such accidents might be greatly 
lessened. This applies particularly to modern 
firearms, many of which are so small and light 
that they seem less dangerous than the old-time 
firearms. 
TUNA IN THE ATLANTIC. 
There was a flurry of excitement among sea 
anglers last week, following the publication in 
the daily press of a statement that a tuna had 
been taken just off the New Jersey coast. This 
tuna, it was said, weighed ninety-eight pounds, 
was taken with rod, line and reel, and was gaffed 
and boated after a fight lasting forty minutes. 
Claims have also been made that small tuna 
have been taken on hand lines in New Jersey 
coast waters this season. Plenty of large horse 
mackerel, or tuna, have been taken by the com¬ 
mercial fishermen orf the North Atlantic grounds, 
with harpoons and. spears, but so far no authen¬ 
tic evidence of the taking of these fish with rod, 
line and hook has been submitted to the angling 
public. 
The result of the first two seasons' efforts of 
J. K. L. Ross to kill Atlantic tuna on the rod 
has been given in these columns. This year the 
Hon. C. G. Conn, a famous Pacific coast angler, 
and F. G. Aflalo, a Briton who has fished every¬ 
where, joined Mr. Ross and all trolled carefully 
over the Cape Breton tuna waters. Messrs. Ross 
and Conn hooked and played large tuna, but 
brought none to gaff, and all have returned to 
their homes. Mr. Ross hooked twenty-one tuna 
in Mira Bay in 1908, eleven last year and four 
this season. One of the four broke his rod after 
five and one-half hours, but for two hours more 
Mr. Ross kept up the fight until the line, frayed 
on the broken tip, parted. Tuna were abundant 
in Mira Bay this year, but the winds and sea are 
frequently too boisterous there for fishing. In 
fact, there is no dearth of tuna in season in 
Nova Scotia waters, and even further south, and 
the failures of past years will only serve to 
stimulate the interest of big-game fishermen in 
the quest of tuna next year in the Atlantic. 
TARRED ROADS AND FISH. 
The preservation of roads in summer through 
the agency of tar or oils spells comfort and 
pleasure for those who travel in vehicles of 
every sort. But it is probable that, of those who 
work on or use these roads, only a very small 
percentage consider the effect of these preserva¬ 
tives on the water of streams and lakes into 
which the rain water that falls on the roads 
drains. There are right and wrong ways to tar 
roads, and the latter is often evident. Where 
file fluid is poured from vessels by hand, or in 
other ways involving uneven distribution, the 
surplus may be carried away by heavy showers 
and thus flow into streams and lakes. 
So far little attention has been given the sub¬ 
ject, for the tarring of roads is not so generally 
practiced, as yet, as to call forth testimony under 
any other head than the one of immediate in¬ 
terest—the benefit, or lack of it, to the travel¬ 
ing public. That our game and food fish may 
be affected is a matter that will command atten¬ 
tion when they disappear, for it is not the prac¬ 
tice of our people to consider by-subjects when 
the main one seems to them important. 
In Scotland and England, where tarring is 
commonly practiced on country roads, but where 
fishing waters have a money value and must be 
conserved, every precaution is taken to prevent 
the destruction of fish life through this agency. 
Some of the county officials insist that every 
precaution be taken to prevent loss to fish. They 
point out that where refined or distilled tar has 
been used, no ill effects on the fish in nearby 
waters have been discovered, but they refuse to 
approve payment for work done with other 
fluids, and refuse permits where guaranteed to 
this effect are not forthcoming. 
At present a committee is investigating the 
effect on fishes of road preserving work in Great 
Britain. Its personnel commands respect, hence 
its findings will be regarded as of the utmost 
importance. 
I he reported occurrence of a passenger pigeon 
on Long Island, recorded on another page, merits 
attention somewhat more serious than is usually 
given to such announcements. The fact that the 
observers believed the bird a dove when they 
first saw it and then, when it passed close to 
them saw that apparently it was not a dove but 
a pigeon, lends an air of probability to the story. 
At the same time the report will not convince 
those whose faith has been destroyed by the 
futile investigation of many reports which have 
proved erroneous. They will feel like the list¬ 
ener, to whom the narrator of a remarkable tale 
said in closing: “If I had not seen it with my 
own eyes I would not have believed it.” “Won¬ 
derful,” answered the listener, “but I did not 
see it.” 
The drouth continues in the Middle Atlantic 
States. Lakes and watercourses are drying up and 
the fish in them are in serious danger of exter¬ 
mination. Reservoirs are in many cases dry or 
nearly so, and towns and villages are not only in 
grave danger in case of fires, but are without 
wholesome water for drinking and cooking. The 
streams which are polluted by every town along 
their shores now furnish frightful object lessons 
of the danger of this short-sighted policy. It is 
feared that, if heavy rains do not fall early in 
the present month, woods fires will be very 
numerous. 
* 
The fortieth anniversary meeting of the 
American Fisheries Society, held in New York 
city, Sept. 27-29, inclusive, was well attended 
and full of interest for anglers and those to 
whom the economic value of our food fishes is 
important. Aside from the discussions and the 
reading of papers by their authors, a large num¬ 
ber of valuable papers on fishing and fish culture 
were presented and filed, to be published in due 
time. 
