MarcH 
10, 1906.] 

FOREST AND STREAM. 

Ae tes 
% 
“The Legislature should restrict the kind of 
rifle used in the people’s pleasure grounds, the 
Adirondacks. The high power military weapon 
is not needed in densely timbered and bushy 
districts, where a shot of more than 100 yards 
is unusual: A good large bore rifle that will 
hold up pretty well on a buck at I50 yards, 
using black or smokeless powder, will have to 
satisfy the Adirondack hunter in the near future. 
Personally, I do not think that a man who has 
never fired even an air gun should be allowed at 
large with any large caliber rifle until he has 
learned at least the practical use of the same, 
and has shown some degree of intelligence in 
rifle practice. I am also in favor of having all 
sportsmen licensed who invade the deer hunt- 
ing forests of this State. 
“Let us all feel that we are shareholders in 
a great preserve, the poor man’s Adirondack 
refuge, where he can go to recover his health 
and give his wife and children their much needed 
change of environment. Let each of us think 
of the comfort of his brother and not try to ex- 
terminate the game or take every good fish from 
a brook or lake. Let sportsmanlike conduct and 
not the mere quantity of wild things killed be- 
come the golden mean for which we strive. 
Obey the new laws and make the other fellow 
do so, too. The deer hounding men say that a 
rich man can now afford to pay a fine when 
caught and that they cannot. Make the fine 
prohibitive for the rich man and prohibit further 
hunting of deer by law-breakers for a term of 
years. That will stop this itching to violate the 
game laws. There will then be a risk of some- 
thing more than a few dollars—the mere value 
of the deer carcass itself sometimes. 
“We expect, with the aid of the commission, 
to have the waters of Eagle Lake stocked with 
black bass, which were formerly so abundant 
there. Many lake, rainbow and speckled trout 
have been lately introduced, and it is hoped to 
return this water to the trout column, and a 
scarcity of pike and bass indicated the best pos- 
sible time for the change.” 
A letter was read from Rodney West, an 
efficient Game Protector from Minerva, N. Y., 
thanking the club for “the way in which you 
have helped me out in this last anti-hounding 
A DOUBLE.ON ANTELOPE. 
fight.” He goes on: “Those fellows having 
sung their swan song, are now doing like a big 
foolish dog I used.to know, running round and 
round chasing their tails, at least that is what 
it seems like. They got a severe moral drub- 
bing administered by the whole State of New 
York. May they long remember it. I saw 
twenty-three deer on Election Day here on less 
than forty acres of land, where in 1897 there was 
not a deer nor sign of one. 
Paris Russell spoke most earnestly in favor 
of the lost cause of deer hounding, claiming that 
he did not care to shoot a tame deer, but pre- 
ferred to get them ahead of the dogs. He com- 
pared still-hunting for partridges without a 
setter to the uninteresting sport of sneaking up 
on a buck and shooting him while lying down 
like a bird on a drumming log. He also gave 
it as his opinion that the .25-30 cartridge has 
not sufficient shocking power to stop the great 
deer of Essex county which often dress more 
than 250 pounds. 
He was opposed by Mr. Boyce, who is a 
most confirmed still-hunter, and who told how 
hounding in a section totally spoiled a still- 
hunter’s luck, and that the two forms were not 
good together. He said that in certain sections 
of Warren and Hamilton counties last fall the 
game protection was extremely weak and the 
warden afraid to assert himself. 
Mr. Tolhurst related his first experience deer 
hunting with a party where the guide tried to 
imitate the baying of a deer hound, but without 
success. He told of a kill of seven ducks once 
with a single shot from a twelve-gauge. Mr. 
Catlin, Mr. Pettit and others gave some ad- 
mirable dialect selections and Mr. Alvany, the 
Alderman of the district, spoke with much feel- 
ing on the subject of hounding, which he hoped 
to see return. He related many anecdotes re- 
garding Adirondack characters whom he had 
met under Mt. Marcy. 
Among those present were Wm. W. Rutter, 
Dr. Spencer C. Hamilton, Herbert Smith, M. 
R. Baldwin, Charles White, C. D. Newell, Jr., 
A. G. Oakley, Frank Houghwout, Daniel Dugan, 
Orange, N. J.; Charles T. Catlin, Drs. W. W. 
Laing, Rubert S. Royce and James P. Becker, 
Horatio F. Taylor, LL.G., Benedict Harold 

Benedict, Brooklyn; Henry Addison Hickok, 
Dyebe Petite oVracuses mVVics kk. Larry. Win vote 
John, Henry Hooper, F. G. Wright and Ethel- 
bert Penny. 
A Statement by Commissioner Whipple 
Forest, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER JAMES 
S. WHIPPLE has issued the following statement 
concerning the recent decision of the Court of 
Appeals, which is of the greatest interest, not 
only to sportsmen generally, but also to every 
dealer in fish and game in New York State: 
“The decision lately handed down by the 
Court of Appeals in the case of the People vs. 
John Hill, and the People vs. August Silz— 
opinion by Chief Justice Cullen—is of so much 
public interest that it seems proper that this 
department should call attention to the same in 
order that those who deal in. and use foreign 
game birds may not violate the law without 
knowledge. This decision reverses the order 
of the Appellate Division of the First Depart- 
ment, and fixes and establishes the law so that 
no one need be mistaken about its meaning. 
“The Forest, Fish and Game Law, Chapter 20, 
Laws of 1900, as amended—Sections 106 and 108 
—states that grouse shall not be taken or pos- 
sessed from Jan. I to Oct. 31, nor plover from 
Jan. 1 to July 15. Section 140 of said Act de- 
fines grouse to include ruffed grouse, partridge 
and every member of the grouse family. By 
Section 141 the inhibition enacted by the other 
sections of the statute are made to apply to 
fish, game or flesh coming from without the 
State, as well as to that taken within the State. 
Section 119 provides that any one violating the 
provisions of the statute herein recited is guilty 
of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine, etc. These 
sections of the law cited and this decision make 
it plain that foreign game birds cannot be 
possessed, sold or used during the close season 
in this State any more than domestic birds. 
“Public attention is called to this decision and 
the law by this department for the sole purpose 
that all may be aware of the law as it now 
stands, to the end that all may observe the law, 
and this department may be aided in enforcing 
itg4 

