Forest and Stream 
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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 
1910. 
VOL. LXXV.—No. 16. 
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. 
UTAH WILDFOWL EPIDEMIC. 
The extraordinary epidemic prevailing among 
the wildfowl and wild water birds in the Salt 
Lake valley presents, we believe, conditions 
wholly novel among wild birds in this country. 
Some years ago a disease was reported to exist 
among the bobwhite quail, but it never assumed 
alarming proportions. 
The Utah situation is one difficult, if not im¬ 
possible, to combat. Among domestic fowls a 
disease of this kind may be treated by their 
owner. To attempt to deal effectively with the 
sick birds of a great territory is obviously hope¬ 
less. 
The comments of Dr. W. Reid Blair, the ac¬ 
complished veterinarian of the New York Zoo¬ 
logical Society, indicate that the disease so fully 
described by Dr. Stewart was by him correctly 
diagnosed, and that it is what is known as duck 
cholera. These comments also indicate that the 
removal of the sick birds from the infected area 
and supplying them with pure food and water 
tend to insure recovery from the disease, which 
is the conclusion reached by the local observers. 
The subject is one of very wide interest and 
the danger more or less alarming. At the same 
time such evidence as we possess seems to indi¬ 
cate that the disease is brought on by purely 
local conditions and is not likely to become gen¬ 
eral. 
THE NEW YORK GAME COMMISSION. 
Few changes have been made in the personnel 
of the New York State Forest, Fish and Game 
Commission by the new commissioner, H. Leroy 
Austin. Since our announcement, last week, of 
the resignation of Mr. Whipple, J. Duncan Law¬ 
rence, deputy commissioner, has tendered his 
resignation, but its acceptance by Governor 
White has not been announced. Following close 
on the special commission’s report, the resigna¬ 
tion of Governor Hughes took effect, and he 
this week assumed his duties as a Justice of the 
United States Supreme Court, so that it is Gov¬ 
ernor White who will take action on Mr. Law¬ 
rence’s resignation this week, and appoint his 
successor if a change is made. 
Commissioner Austin has asked these officials 
to remain during his administration: John B. 
Burnham, Chief Game Protector; Clifford R. 
Pettis, Superintendent of Forests; B. Frank 
Wood, Superintendent of Marine Fisheries; Tar- 
leton H. Bean, Fish Culturist; Gurth A. Whip¬ 
ple, Secretary to the Commissioner; Attorney, 
Ellis J. Staley. 
Mr. Austin has consented to act as commis¬ 
sioner until Governor White shall have decided 
on the appointment of his successor. He did not 
seek the position and insists that he will not 
accept a regular appointment as commissioner. 
A BAD NAME. 
Of late years investigators of some much- 
dreaded diseases seem disposed to cast the re¬ 
sponsibility for their origin and transmission to 
human beings on fish. 
Many physicians have declared their belief 
that leprosy is induced by a diet in which fish 
has a large share, and this notwithstanding the 
fact that a considerable portion of the world's 
inhabitants subsist largely on fish, though leprosy 
is relatively a very rare disease. 
Not long ago we were told that certain fish 
are frequently affected with cancer, and the pos¬ 
sibility is suggested that this disease may be 
transmitted to the human subject by the use of 
fish for food. At the recent international con¬ 
ference on the study of cancer. Dr. Gaylord de¬ 
scribed at length his studies of cancers in fish 
The question whether a cancer is parasitic or 
non-parasitic appears to be still an open one. 
As if all this were not enough. Prof. Gosio, a 
celebrated Italian bacteriologist, now announces 
his belief that cholera germs are transmitted by 
fish, for he has found the specific vibrion of 
Asiatic cholera in nearly all the fish caught near 
the coast of Bari in Italy. His inquiry will be 
continued to discover whether these microbes 
multiply within the fish. 
All these alarming statements will not, we 
fancy, lessen the interest in angling, nor inter¬ 
fere with the demand for fish as food. We may 
await with patience and cheerfulness something 
much more definite on these matters than we 
now have. 
The effects of stream pollution are being 
brought home to the people in numerous places 
just now in the form of serious illness. Wast¬ 
ing fevers and kindred maladies are prevalent 
in sections where the long drouth has been felt 
keenly—ills that have been traced directly to the 
use of drinking water taken from contaminated 
springs and brooks. In many places the avail¬ 
able supply of water is dwindling at an alarm¬ 
ing rate, with scant relief in prospect, for Octo¬ 
ber’s precipitation record is not encouraging; 
elsewhere wells, springs and streams that have 
never before been dry, so far as the present 
generation can remember, have failed. The con¬ 
servation of drinking water and of game fish 
often calls for action along similar lines, and 
yet the general public is apathetic regarding the 
fate of the fish, and oddly enough takes alto¬ 
gether too little interest in its drinking water. 
So long as the streams flow on, little attention 
is given to the waste matter that is turned into 
them, and nothing short of an epidemic disease 
or the heavy hand of the law will induce the 
public to cease that which is against its own 
best interests. 
The comments concerning tuna fishing in the 
Atlantic, which have appeared in these columns 
recently, have attracted the attention of sea 
anglers, a large number of whom have since 
tried for tuna on the banks several miles off the 
New Jersey coast. Some of their experiences 
are recorded elsewhere in this issue, together 
with the first photograph which we have been 
able to obtain of specimens taken there with rod 
and reel. These specimens appear to be tuna. 
To be certain, however, at least one specimen 
should be sent to the New York Aquarium for 
positive identification and as a matter of record. 
8 ? 
A great painter who appreciated the Adiron- 
dacks in sunshine and storm was Winslow 
Homer, who died recently at the age of seventy- 
four years. For a time he camped in the 
North Woods and produced a series of beautiful 
paintings of Indian canoemen, fishing scenes and 
life on the lakes. He passed away where he had 
lived for several years, at Scarsboro, Maine, 
where the fishermen and the storms of that coast 
furnished him many a theme. He was, perhaps, 
the best known painter of outdoor scenes and 
life of his time. 
9f 
One who traverses the byways of the hill 
country lying west of the Hudson River these 
October days is impressed with the evident ac¬ 
tivity of the snakes of the region. These roads 
are deep with dust, and crossing them at frequent 
intervals are the trails ; of snakes, big and little. 
One and all show that their makers realize the 
danger they are in, even if they do not appreciate 
the speed of motor cars, for all crossings are 
made at right angles and without loss of time. 
V. 
It is unfortunate that the opening of the shoot¬ 
ing season in several States comes at a time 
when the woods are dry as tinder from the long 
drouth. The leaves, too, are falling fast, adding 
to the fuel which a match or a deserted camp¬ 
fire may convert into dangerous fires, difficult to 
control because of the dearth of water in brooks 
and streams. Every person who traverses the 
woods should exercise every precaution to-pre¬ 
vent woods fires. 
