


902 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

[Dec. 7, 1907. 



the line. He enlightened me somewhat by ex- 
pressing his opinion that it was a leaping man 
eater that is seldom seen hereabouts, but I have 
caught them on a shark line while fishing at Key 
West, but no man can take a shark like that on 
a rod. Why, I saw a shark of that kind pull 
three men off a dock down there two years ago, 
after my telling them if they wanted to catch 
shark on a line to get into a boat. After a time 
Plinius said to me: 
“Mr. Boss, you can never kill that fish on a 
rod; he will keep up that leaping all the morn- 
ing.’ I knew better, and after making several 
more leaps, always bent in a semi-circle, his head 
and tail nearly touching, I found he was well 
fastened, and it would be perhaps a matter of 
a half hour when I should have him alongside of 
the boat. I kept taking in all the line I could 
when he made his leaps and between his rushes. 
have had the good fortune.to catch some large 
leaping fish such as tarpon and salmon, but if 
these leaping qualities be compared to those of 
us shark they were as children to a full grown 

man. This shark left the water by clean leaps 
twenty-one times before I got him under con- 
trol. He was finished by having a shot put 
through his head. Being too large to take in 
the skiff we fastened a line to his tail and towed 
him back to the Osprey. He measured a little 
under seven feet. Cc) DS BW. 

New Jersey Game and Fish. 
IN its report to the Governor the New Jersey 
Fish and Game Commission refers to the dis- 
tribution of game and fish throughout the State 
during the past five years as follows: 
Ring-neck pheasants 
Qagil) saseadas, on cee eee ee Re Oe ee. ee 
SBOE ese ce feree ek ea ee pon ee ae eee ote 
Rabbits ¥..c pest pee rnaee eee 
Gray *Squirrels,, Seco mcnes tt en ne oo nee ee ae 
Brook trout wi242 sine teen cae ee ee 
Blachy bass: \7ne Mer newt ie a ee, en ee 
Berch'gs,.6-. ateg Serie eae ey eee 
Pickerel Br gout iccat after 
Crappie and calico be SS.. 
Cathhsh | jo deaceey mat ear ace tReet ee 26,805 
Bait Tish: 75 sy one oe eae 96,600 
Wall-eved pike and miscellaneous................ 3,800 
brad!» trey Gi thsrts ote cebeiieonale is cide evcini Au ca ee eee 12,653,000 
\n attempt even to approximate what the Lee 
sult of this stocking has been, says the comm’s- 
sion, would be exceedingly difficult It must 
be remembered that all stocking, all interference 
with the balance which nature has established in 
its various kingdoms, is experimental. When 
we place fish in a pond we do not know whether 
they will live. What is true of vegetation is also 
true of fish. -To human comprehension climate 
and soil may be the same, yet the products will 
differ and flowers and fruits will not all grow 
alike in the same latitude. The transplanting of 
fish from one water ‘to another, no matter how 
similar the two bodies of water may appear, is 
not always attended by the same result: the fish 
may increase and do better than they did in 
the water they were taken from; they may pass 
the natural span of their lives in their new home 
without propagating, or they may die immedi- 
ately after the change. 
We have no hesitation in saying that the re- 
sult of the stocking done by the board was suc- 
cessful, not uniformly, for that could not be ex- 
pected, but in the aggregate. 
What has been said about stocking with fish 
may be said also about stocking with game. We 
do not know the degree of success. That it was 
successful is attested by the numerous fields 
where there are quail now and where there were 
none before. 
In addition to this, an epidemic, somewhat re- 
sembling the epidemic which in the early fifties 
threatened to exterminate the grouse in Scot- 
land, has raged among the quail; it has now 
pretty well covered the entire area of the United 
States and means have not yet been discovered 
for checking it. Disease among the wild fauna is 
more difficult to control than among human be- 
ings, and in the present case not even the or- 
igin and character of the disease have been 
definitely determined. 
During the past five years there have been 
T0607 prosecutions for violations of the fish and 
game laws. Of these cases 1,610 resulted in con- 
victions and 57 in acquittals. The aggregate of 

fines paid amount to the sum of $40,681.08 and 
of this sum there was Ce into the treasury of 
the commission the sum of $13,560.36. It will 
be observed that the sum received by the com- 
mission is somewhat less than one-third of the 
regate fines imposed; this discrepancy is ac- 
ALT 
Ss 
counted for by the fact that in a number of 
cases the fines were not collected, the sentences 
being merely held over the heads of the 
offenders as a guarantee of their future be- 
havior, such cases being principally those where 
extenuating circumstances were of such a char- 
acter that we refrained from insisting on en- 
forcing the law which provides for 1mprison- 
ment in cases of default in the payment of fines. 
As to the enactment of a fish and game law 
which shall be satisfactory to all parts of New 
Jersey and all the diversified interests, we do not 
believe that possible of accomplishment. New 
Jersey is so extended in its territory longitudinally 
that there is a difference of between two and 
three weeks between the two extremes of longi- 
tude. The best time for the killing of game in 
the northern tier of counties is seldom the best 
time for this purpose in the southern tier of 
counties. On two occasions has the Legislature 
endeavored to overcome this difficulty by the en- 
actment of a game section law, the State being 
divided into two sections, the northern and the 
southern. Such a law has, however, never 
proven satisfactory, and on both occasions of 
its enactment it was quickly taken from the 
statute books. The northern and southern parts 
of the State were better satisfied to some extent, 
but there was the most serious objections raised 
by the middle counties. 

The Federal Government and the government 
of a number of the individual States have taken 
steps for the establishment of game refuges 
either for that purpose or combining it 
with the interests of forestry. Your commis- 
sion has endeavored to impress oe the Legis- 
lature the necessity of something of the kind be- 
ing done in New Jersey. We have in a rather 
humble way, endeavored to attain this eat. but 
we were seriously handicapped by the fact that 
sole 
at no time has there ever been one dollar ap- 
propriated for the purpose, and also by a flat re- 
fusal on the part of the State Forest Park Com- 
mission to make game refuges‘of its parks. 
An attempt was made at the last session of the 
Legislature to enact a law prohibiting the sale 
of game. The measure met with our hearty 
support, but it failed. We may be mistaken in 
our opinion that the time has come for such ap- 
parently drastic legislat;on; if so, then the game 
authorities in a great many of the States in the 
Union are also mistaken. If the Legislature 
does not enact such a law in the near future, it 
will do so later on, perhaps when it is too late. 
During the past two years there has been con- 
siderable discussion, frequently of an acrimon- 
ious nature, concerning the capture of men- 
haden by steam vessels and the taking of edible 
fish-by the use of pounds or fixed traps. Our 
views on this subject will be found recorded in 
nearly every report we made to the Legislature, 
and we still believe that both kinds of fishing 
should be regulated. Absolute prohib‘tion we 
believe to be unnecessary and inadvisable. The 
arguments of the agitators who insisted that the 
menhaden steamers and the pound nets were ex- 
terminating the fish along the seaboard while 
those engaged in the industries were accumulat- 
ing enormous fortunes appear ridiculous at the 
present day. in view of the fact that during the 
past year there was better handline fishing in 
salt water than there has been in a number of 
years, the fact that more cod were taken along 
the Jersey coast than in two or three previous 
decades and the bankruptcy of the Fisheries 
Company, the corporation which owned most of 

the menhaden steamers. The Leg’slature fortu- 
nately, by an Oe majority, defeated 
a bill, the object of which was to create a salt 
water commission for the purpose of enforcing 
laws which did not exist and paying ten thou- 
sand dollars a year for what the Fish and Game 
Commissioners have been do‘ng without any re- 
muneration whatever for a number of years 
Your commission during the past year has 
been made the subject of a great deal of criti- 
cism and unfavorable comment which would not 



have developed had the facts been known. W 
have no desire to enter into an extensive di 
cuss.on of the matters referred to, believing thi 
only a short time will elapse before the baseles 
ness of the hysterical and grossly unjust acet 
sations will become apparent. There are, hov 
ever, a few points to which we desire to call a 
tention, not for the purpose of exculpating ou 
selves, but in order that the Legislature ma 
provide means that our successors in office ma 
not find themselves assailed in a similar manne 
The affairs of the board were subjected t 
the most rigid scrutiny; fortunately for om 
selves, we had taken the precaution of filin 
every year with the proper authorities in Trer 
ton all our vouchers and other papers, whic 
showed the painstaking care with which we ha 
administered the duties of our office. 
A great ado was made over the fact that tl 
State had annually appropriated $5,0co for tl 
maintenance of a fish hz itchery which had no e> 
istence. The Legislature a number of years agé 
long before any of the members of the presel 
board were in office, passed a law providing thi 
the Legislature might annually appropriate suc} 
sum of money as might be deemed advisabl 
for the maintenance of a hatchery and_ th) 
propagation of fish. At that time the Stat} 
paid no further attention to game than th), 
passage of laws establishing open and close sez) 
the wardens were fish wardens and thel| 
had no authority to prosecute for violations « 
any laws pertaining to game. It was ata tim | 
when the artificial hatching of fish was in it, 
infancy and it was presumed that New Jerse; 
wovld follow the example set by a number c 
other States and establish a hatchery. As | 
matter of fact. it was never the part of goo) 
policy on the part of the State to establish 
hatchery. The work of Seth Green and othel, 
early fishculturists gave an impetus to th 
artificial development of trout eggs. 
To establish a trout hatchery would hay| 
meant the expenditure not only of a considerabl} 
sum of money for the ground and the hatchery} 
but a continual expense in the maintenance. Al 
no time since the artificial development of trou| 
eges began have the prices of yearling trou| 
een such that the expense entailed by the em| 
loyment of a fishculturist would not have ex 
ceeded a sum for which the State could hav 
yurchased all the trout required by it. W 
might have developed trout cheaper than wi 
rave bought them, but not in such limited quan 
tities. The salary of a fishculturist would hav 
amounted to more each year than the sum ex 
ended for trout and we believe that ever 
stream worthy of attention in the State ha 
een stocked. It is an axiom in fishculture tha 
every body of water will produce fish exactly ii 
proportion to the amount of food furnished fo 
such fish. It would have been a sheer waste o 
money to have placed more trout in stream) 
than the same would properly support. On thi| 
accornt our predecessors in office never appliec| 
to the Legislature for the large sum of mone}| 
necessary to establish a hatchery. When thé 
State began to pay attention to game as well aj 
to fsh the law under which appropriations wer 
made was changed so that it is now broad 
enough to cover expenses for propagating gami| 
as well as fish. 
A few years ago there were no deer in New 
Jersey, but few quail and a very few stream}| 
contain ng trout except in the extreme northert| 


























































































































sons; 

part. To-day we witness the restoration of oni 
of the greatest game animals on this continent| 
deer appearing in large numbers all over thi 
State; our depleted covers of quail quite fully re| 
stored to normal conditions, and hundreds o 
streams, which never before contained trout} 
now afford good sport to the anglers and fooc| 
for the farmer. This is the direct result of the 
work of the present Board of Fish and Game 
Commissioners. 

THE CAMPING OUTFIT 
of the thoughtful camper invariably includes ¢ 
supply of Borden’ s Eagle Brand Condensed Milk! 
With this in camp, the most important food iterr 
is taken care of. Eagle Milk keeps indefinitely 
in any climate. The original and leading branc 
since 1857. Always uniform—Adv. 



