FOREST AND STREAM. 


[Fes. 3, 1906. 
GAM ll Ta\ ANID GWIN 



Federal Protection of Game. 
PHILADELPHIA, Pa., Jan. 25.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Last year I endeavored to call the 
attention of sportsmen and naturalists to the 
necessity of having the national Government at 
Washington take charge of the preservation of 
certain species of game, especially the migra- 
tory birds, wild ducks, plover, snipe and curlew 
which do not belong to a particular State like 
the quail, but are, so to speak, inter-State birds. 
Some would like the national Government to 
take charge of all kinds of game. But let us 
confine ourselves for the present to the wild- 
fowl. 
We all know that the attempts thus far to 
preserve or prevent final extermination of the 
wild ducks are complete failures. The laws are 
not enforced except that clause of them which 
requires the payment of a $10 license by non- 
residents. If the money were used to protect 
the birds, I, for one, would not begrudge it; 
but it is not. Night shooting, market shooting 
and shipping to market go on without let or 
hindrance. A game warden on the coast of 
Virginia, who is most diligent in collecting the 
$10 non-resident license, frankly admitted this 
winter that he could not stop night shooting, 
and that there was no use in trying. We heard 
the heavy guns booming every night. He and his 
colleagues make not the slightest attempt to stop 
shipping to market; and, of course, those of 
us who are familiar with such places know the 
feeling. They do not want to interfere with 
neighbors and old friends who have long made 
a profit in this sort of thing. 
In North Carolina there is no law forbidding 
shooting for market and shipping to market; 
and it is well known that the market shooting 
influence is so strong that the Audubon Society 
of that State cannot secure the passage ot any 
laws to stop this sort of extermination. The 
people are determined to get what money they 
can out of the birds during the few years they 
will last and let posterity take care of itself. 
In fact, the laws of Currituck Sound favor tne 
market duck shooter and restrict the sports- 
men. 
I said last year that nothing short of an 
amendment to the Constitution, giving Congress 
the power to pass legislation for the protection 
of game will save the game of this country, 
especially migratory birds, like the ducks. 
Maine, no doubt, has succeeded in increasing 
the number of its deer and reaping a rich har- 
vest in money return. But although it has been 
proved over and over again by figures that 
game preservation is far more profitable than 
game extermination, the larger majority o1 
States in the Union will never look at it in that 
light in our time, and after that it will be too 
late. Most of them are unable to preserve their 
quail; and a dozen or fifteen would have to 
pass uniform laws and have, what is impossible, 
uniform enforcement of them in order to have 
any substantial effect on the rapidly lessening 
supply of wildfowl. 
But the Government at Washington, if given 
authority by the Constitution, could pass a law 
which would apply to the whole Union and be 
enforced uniformly as the internal revenue laws 
are enforced, by marshals and detectives, who 
know no fear or favor in county or State poli- 
tics, or in neighborhoods. Under such a sys- 
tem, the Government could stop all duck shoot- 
ing in the United States for a period of two or 
three years, which would vastly increase the wild- 
fowl. After that, with market shooting and night 
shooting stopped, a closed year once in every 
three would keep the game increasing until in 
time they would be as numerous as they were 
sixty years ago, and then market shooting might 
be allowed again, under certain restrictions. 
There was an attempt made to pass an act of 
Congress putting migratory birds under the 
care of the Department of Agriculture, but the 
Department in that case could merely have 
given good advice to the States or to indi- 
viduals. It would have had no power to en- 
force a law and fine and imprison people for 
breaking the law. Every lawyer and judge 
knows that an act of Congress forbidding night 
shooting, declaring a close year or making any 
other regulation about game in Chesapeake Bay, 
say, or Currituck Sound or anywhere, except 
in the District of Columbia or some National 
Park, would be unconstitutional and void, and 
the first man and every man arrested under it 
would be discharged by the courts. 
There is no use in fooling away time with 
half-way measures. Nothing but an amendment 
to the Constitution can give Congress the power 
to save the birds. Nothing but the full govern 
mental power of fine and imprisonment without 
fear or favor, nothing but rigid enforcement, as 
the revenue and tariff acts are enforced, by ‘the 
methodical and systematic action of numerous 
officials backed by the wealth and power of the 
national Government, can accomplish any satis- 
factory result. Anything short of that is a 
mere waste of words and energy. 
To amend the Constitution is a serious under- 
taking. But fifteen amendments have been 
added to it; and a sixteenth which will save ior 
our people the charms and delights of health- 
giving nature will be worth all it costs. The 
sportsmen, the naturalists, the nature lovers, the 
health seekers and the good citizens must be 
organized in one great association or in a num- 
ber of associations to be federalized for united 
effort. SypDNEY G. FISHER. 
North American Association. 
THE sixth annual convention of the North 
American Fish and Game Association was held 
in Boston on Wednesday and Thursday of last 
week, Jan. 24 and 25. Vice-President F. S. 
Hodges, of Boston, presided. Secretary E. T. 
D. Chambers reported that during the year there 
were acquired fourteen new members. There 
were four resignations and two deaths. 
G. H. Richards, manager of the Long Pond 
Club, presented the report of Massachusetts. 
He said that the State commissioners are en- 
gaged in a careful investigation of the fecundity 
of the common clam, and hope to devise some 
system acceptable to the public that will save 
this valuable shell fish from the rapid destruc- 
tion which threatens it. 
Dr. E. G. Smith, Superintendent of Fisheries, 
of Chatham, N. B., said there had been an in- 
crease of game, large and small, in 1905, and 
this has been the case several years. 
Dr. Bishop said he had been to New Bruns- 
wick several times and considered its license law 
the best in the world. 
Dr. Phinney, of Quebec, spoke of the abuse of 
cold storage, and characterized the moral effect 
bad of selling game and fish out of season. 
At the afternoon session the Hon. L. T. 
Carleton, of Augusta, Me., Commissioner of 
Inland Fisheries and Game, said that game in 
Maine was more plentiful than ever, with the 
exception of caribou, which seem to have left 
entirely for some reason. 
Former Governor Nelson W. Fisk, of Fisk, 
Vt., told of the growth of the Vermont Asso- 
ciation. 
Dr. John T. Phinney, the vice-president of the 
Quebec Association, said that there has been a 
great awakening in connection with the fish and 
game protection in the province. Much good 
has been accomplished since the Hon. S. N. 
Parent retired from his position as Minister of 
Forest and Fisheries. He has been succeeded 
by the Hon. Jean Prevost, who has shown 
marvelous activity and energy in acquiring a 
complete knowledge of his department. The 
present game act is to be amended to include 
the tag system as adopted by Ontario, and the 
licensed guide as in the State of Maine. The 
present system of deputy wardens will be en- 
tirely done away with, and instead a few good 
wardens will be appointed at a good salary. 
L. O. Armstrong, colonization agent of the 
Canadian Pacific Railroad, said he believed cari- 
bou had left Maine because of the woodsmen 
and had gone north ‘to New Brunswick and 
Labrador. The lumbermen interfered with the 
feed of the caribou, and after the caribou had 
left the moose took their place, but on the ap- 
proach of the settler the moose left and the deer 
took the place of the latter. 
He said that wolves were the greatest menace 
to the game on land, as were “suckers,” such as 
carp, to the game fish in all waters, such as» 
salmon and trout. Wolves were on the increase 
in Canada especially, and he urged a resolution 
favoring the passage of laws which should offer 
a bounty of $25 for all wolves. He believed that 
every means should be taken to kill off carp, 
and he said these carp made good feed for 
cows and hogs under proper conditions. 
Among those present from the various States 
and provinces were: Ivers W. Adams, of Bos- 
ton; L. O. Armstrong, of Montreal; Dr. Heber 
Bishop, of Boston; Charles F. Burhans, of 
Glens Falls, N. Y.; Gen. F. G. Butterfield, of 
Derby Line, ibe Hon. Leroy T. Carleton, of 
Augusta, Me.; T. D. Chambers, of Quebec; 
Direlohnede Baaies president of ‘Quebec Fish 
and Game Protective Association; A. Kelly 
Evans, secretary of Ontario Fish and Game 
Protective Association; ex-Gov. Nelson W. 
Fisk, of Vermont; Maj. William W. Henry, U. 
S. Consul at Quebec; Robert E. Plumm, of De- 
troit; Dr. George L. Porter, of Bridgeport, 
Conn.; George H. Richards, of Boston; D. G. 
Smith, Fish Commissioner of New Brunswick; 
Hon. H. G. Thomas, Fish and Game Commis- 
sioner of Vermont; John W. Titcomb, Chief 
Fishculturist of United States at Washington, 
D. C;; C. \E. E. Ussher,= op etheveuanmedian 
Pacific Railway, Montreal. 
At the Thursday session Commissioner Carle- 
ton, of Maine, introduced a resolution which 
was discussed, ‘but was not voted upon, reading: 
“That the sense of this Association is that the 
carrying of firearms, other than small arms with 
barrels not exceeding six inches in length, into 
the wild lands of the States or provinces in the 
close season, is not conducive to the protection 
of game. Therefore, this Association recom- 
mends the passage of legislation to prevent the 
carrying of firearms other than small firearms, 
into the wild lands.” 
Ernest Harold Baynes, of Newport, N. H., 
gave a talk on the preservation of the American 
bison. The lecture was profusely illustrated on 
the screen from photographs taken of the dozen 
largest herds now extant. Mr. Baynes is sec- 
retary of the American Bison Society. The 
speaker said all but one or two of the herds now 
in existence are for sale to the butcher or 
tanner if money enough be offered, and that 
the immediate extinction of the animal is im- 
minent unless steps were taken to place the 
herd under governmental ownership. 
The following officers were elected: Presi- 
dent, Hon. Jean Provost; Vice-Presidents, Hon. 
L. ‘T: Carleton, of Maine; Honii, )).aeem 
Sweeney, of New Brunswick; A Kelly Evans, 
of Ontario; Dr. George C. Parker, of Connecti- 
cut, and last year’s Board of Vice-Presidents. 
The new Executive Committee comprises C. F. 
Burhans, of New York; Oliver Adams, of 
Ontario; John Chamberlain, of Connecticut, and 
C. E. E. Ussher, of Montreal. 
