by unusual freshets in that stream, canvas-back ducks almost totally deserted the locality. Those that formerly tarried there during the season resorted to other waters where they found suitable food, and where they had not been seen for many years previous. With the recuperation of the wild-celery beds in the Susquehanna the canvas-back ducks returned to the flats in the usual numbers. This shifting habit of wild fowl creates a false impression as to their numerical increase. That they are rapidly on the decrease is apparent to those who understand the dangers which environ them.

The perfection to which breech-loading and magazine shot-guns have attained has been a most important factor in contributing to this result. In the case of suipe, for example, whose migratory habits are the same as those of wild ducks and geese, and which are shot over decoys, certain species have met with entire extermination, while others are fast on the way to the same end. This has come about through the rapidity of fire of modern weapons, and the facility with which a flock of certain varieties of snipe may be recalled again and again to the lures by the gunner skillful in the imitation of their note, until not a single one survives. This is notably the case with dowitchers, willet, large and small yellow-legs, and other sorts. Thirty years ago, when muzzle-loading shot-guns were used almost exclusively, when a flight of dowitchers was in progress along the coast, flock followed flock so uninterruptedly that half a dozen professional gunners in company could not load and shoot with sufficient rapidity to assail more than one flock in three. Within a brief period after the introduction of breechloaders the large flights of these birds had totally ceased, so that to-day only occasional dowitchers are seen. What is true of them is proportionately so of other varieties of snipe. Breech-loading and magazine shot-guns are equally deadly when employed against wild ducks and

geese. The possession of a higher order of intelligence and greater caution and timidity have so far preserved them from total extermination, though some of the species no longer exist; but the end. of all is not far off, unless prompt measures be taken to stay the conscienceless slaughter of which they are the victims. While the muzzle-loading shot-gun was in use, as in the case of snipe, when ducks were flying freely, many flocks passing over decoys escaped unharmed. With the more modern weapon, susceptible as it is of delivering a fire whose rapidity is in proportion to the supply of cartridges, a flock rarely fails to suffer loss. The use of the "choke" in the shot-gun of to-day has much increased its effective range. This encourages gunners to shoot into flocks of passing wild fowl at unreasonable distances, where, while one of its number may be killed, a half-dozen, more or less, will be so seriously wounded that, while able to escape for the time being, they ultimately succumb to their injuries. This inflicts a loss from which no one reaps any advantage. What is true of breech-loading or magazine shotguns applies equally to magazine rifles, used in the pursuit of four-footed game. With these weapons, the gunner, failing with the first shot, is enabled to "pump lead" into his quarry until the supply of ammunition is exhausted. It must be a very poor marksman indeed who, thus equipped, fails either to kill or to wound.

To understand more fully the perils with which wild ducks and geese are environed, it is necessary to consider the conditions which affect their perpetuation. When our Northwestern States were but sparsely populated, many of the wild- duck species nested and reared their young within their limits. With the advent of population they shifted their breeding-grounds to the northern portions of Canada, from which they were driven in turn, until now all of them, with the exception of certain surface feeding varieties, such as black

ducks, mallards, teal, wood-ducks, and others, have sought refuge in British America for the unmolested propagation of their kind. In search of safety for this purpose, the fowl have been driven so far north that frequently their young are overtaken by intense cold before being sufficiently fledged to undertake a southward flight. Almost every season great numbers perish from this cause. This loss due to climatic accident is another serious factor contributing to the decrease of the species. When the old birds and their young enter more thickly populated territory en route southward, they are exposed to the pursuit of Canadian gunners and sportsmen. The reception they meet with in Canada is geniality itself compared to that which awaits them on the American side of the line, from Maine to Oregon, throughout the interior, and along the line of coast from Maine to Mexico. Once within our borders, the unfortunate fowl discover that every feeding-ground at which they may be tempted to alight is garrisoned by human foes, equipped with every deadly device to lure and destroy. Nor is there any rest for them, day or night.

With the advent of modern weapons has come the cold-storage system, by which all flesh may be preserved for an indefinite period in a frozen condition. Previously, wild fowl were measurably free. from molestation in the extreme Southern States during the winter months. The refrigerating process has changed all that. With the introduction of this device, the former respite which was granted them has ceased, and their killing goes on as mercilessly at the South during the winter as in the Northern States at other seasons of the year. Nor is this all. When the fowl start on their northward flight in the spring, they are harassed with the same persistency as during their progress to the South in the autumn, until they again approach the borders of their breeding-grounds in British America. It will appeal to the

dullest understanding that to kill these birds in the spring, when they are mating and preparing to propagate, involves a reckless and unpardonable waste. By a kind provision of nature, however, the average of females to males, among migratory wild fowl, is as one to three or four. All the more is the loss of one of the former during the mating season a thing to be deplored. Fortunately, she is at that time endowed with an instinct, or rather knowledge, which renders her exceedingly wary and suspicious of the lures of gunners. There is but one way to preserve our wild ducks and geese from extermination, at least for a long time to come, and that is a uniform law to prohibit the killing of these birds from the 1st of February to the 1st of September, and between sunset and sunrise. Given a law of this character, rigidly enforced, and wild fowl may be safely left to care for themselves. For one State to enact such a law, and the one adjoining to ignore it, is worse than useless. It offers the opportunity for a concentration of gunners where they may pursue the fowl with impunity in the spring, with a corresponding augmentation of slaughter. The conditions which environ wild fowl apply, with certain modifications, to all the feathered and fourfooted game of the country.

The case of fish which annually migrate from Florida to Maine, along the Atlantic coast, is not dissimilar to that of migratory wild fowl. They likewise go where food is available. The menhaden, which provides sustenance to some of our finest varieties, such as striped bass, bluefish, Spanish mackerel, and others, formerly passed along our coast in countless numbers, followed by the latter in proportionate numbers. Every estuary and bay, at a certain season, was literally filled with menhaden, besides the vast numbers which followed outside the lines of beach. The fish which fed upon them were proportionately numerThe best varieties were cheap, and

ous.

attainable to almost all. What is the situation to-day? At first the menhaden were taken and put in a crude state upon the land as a fertilizer. Then factories were established for rendering their flesh into a more concentrated fertilizing product. The demand which in consequence sprang up for these fish promptly absorbed all that resorted to the estuaries the estuaries and bays. They were then caught in seines cast from the beaches. When this source of supply was exhausted, steamers were employed, which, equipped with vast nets, took the menhaden so soon as they appeared off Hatteras until they reached the coast of Maine. Under this dispensation, menhaden, while decreasing rapidly in numbers, were driven farther and farther from the shores, until now the cost of their capture is so large that the manufacture of fish guano has measurably decreased. What has been

the result on the middle Atlantic and New England coasts of this reckless destruction of bait? Many fish which were formerly taken in the bays and estuaries frequented by menhaden, and upon which they fed, are now rarely captured there. The seines in which they were caught from the beaches can no longer be worked with profit. The only traps now used for this purpose are small set nets planted at a distance from land, tended with great risk, and productive of but trifling results compared to the former catches of the beach seines. The outcome of this reckless destruction of menhaden has been to throw thousands of men out of employment, and to enhance the price of striped bass, bluefish, and other edible fish for many people to the prohibitory point, with the prospect of a continued decrease in the supply. If menhaden ever return in their former numbers, the plant is all in readiness to gather them in promptly; but no effort will be made to control an abuse of the harvest, which will necessarily be a brief one. The conditions that environ our pelagic fish are different from those which

affect fresh-water species. The successful artificial propagation of the latter and of the anadromous sorts is an assured fact. It is entirely possible to restock our lakes and streams, provided a sufficient output of fry is assured. The difficulty which confronts us is that, from motives of economy, the present liberation of fry is ridiculously inadequate, and barely covers the natural losses incidental to all young fish life. It will only be necessary, in order to increase the supply of fish in our inland waters, to provide an enlarged plant and accord a more liberal expenditure of money.

The supporters and champions of the laws for the protection of our game and fish are anglers and other sportsmen. Opposed to them are several elements, which, however, are not entirely harmonious. Among these are farmers, market gunners, foreign dealers in birdskins and plumage, many dealers in game and fish, many proprietors of hotels, restaurants, and cold-storage warehouses, and "statesmen." Anglers and other sportsmen, generally, are honorable men and loyal to their convictions. Unfortunately, their efforts in the interest of the protection of game and fish are weakened by radical differences as to the measures to accomplish it. This lack of harmony is the opportunity of our stateswho are not unmindful of the votes at the command of the opposition to thwart and embarrass them. Moreover, as another element of weakness, there exists among our sportsmen a class noisy and vociferous in exacting the most rigid enforcement of the game and fish laws, who, in the presence of quantities of game and fish, exhibit insatiable greed in killing and capturing. This class had its foreign prototype, mainly English, who, when large game was plentiful in this country, came to us for sport, and whose progress across the hunting-grounds of the West was marked by a wanton and ruthless slaughter that would have disgraced a band of savages.

men

Of the opponents of these laws, farmers are the more mild and self-restrained. They argue that game and fish that live and propagate within the limits of their property are theirs by right, and not in the ownership of the State, as the courts have decided. The fact that anglers and other sportsmen proceed upon the latter presumption is what causes friction between them and the agriculturists. The point of view of the farmer is fully explained in the following extract from the Milford, Pa., Dispatch, which credits it to the Orange County Farmer: "Why Why has not a sportsman just as much right to shoot and carry off a farmer's poultry, pigs, and sheep, as his fish, game, birds, rabbits, etc.? The farmer really raises and feeds them all, the one just as much as the other. Then why are not And what right have legislatures to make laws, at the demand of 'alleged sportsmen,' to license the latter to run over a farmer's lands, and tear down his walls, trample on his grain, and shoot and maim and kill and carry away the birds and beasts found thereon? And then, moreover, to cap the climax, making it an offense to capture any of this so-called game, except at the periods designated by these same sportsmen? What an outrage on the farmer, the whole game-law tyranny!"

Gunners for market hold views similar to those of the farmers. They contend that game shall be killed at any time when it is marketable, and under conditions which will assure the largest results, and that they shall not be restrained in the killing by an arbitrary date fixed by those who pursue only pleasure or recreation.

Dealers in birdskins and plumage regard themselves as merely purveyors to a fashion which prescribes the use of

hats and clothing. Of the pernicious and irreparable loss to bird life which this vogue inflicts we have evidence in every direction. Its more fatal quality is found in the fact that the active killing season is in the spring, when the plumage of birds takes on its most brilliant hues. Not long ago an English firm placed an order in this country for the skins of 500,000 ox-eye snipe, the smallest of the species. The same proportionate slaughter is in progress among all of the feathered race. Many kinds have well-nigh suffered extermination. It is not surprising, therefore, that the songs of birds are no longer heard except immediately about country residences or in our larger city parks. As an auxiliary to the rapid extinguishment of bird life, that of collecting their eggs is not ineffective. One dealer gave 20,000 as the number he had sold to amateurs during the season of 1894.

As regards some dealers in game and fish, some proprietors of hotels, restaurants, and cold-storage warehouses, they claim that it is their business to respond to a demand for these aliments. If there be an earnest popular desire to observe the laws respecting the sale of game and fish during the close season, of which they see little or no evidence, — all that is necessary is for people to cease to purchase during that time. As long as the demand continues, business requires that they shall respond to the wishes of pa

trons.

In respect to our statesmen, they are out gunning for votes, and not for game. As there is no close season on the one, they do not see why there should be on the other.

It is a maxim of swordsmen that "to every thrust there is a parry." Conservative anglers and other sportsmen are acting upon this principle in the establishment of preserves, where fish and game may be propagated and protected. The growth of game and fish preserves in this country has been rapid during the

In order to give an idea of how it happened that our family could return from Europe to Concord with a few great expectations, I will rehearse somewhat of the charm which had been found in the illustrious village when my father and mother first knew it. There a group of people conversed together who have left an echo that is still heard. There also is still heard "the shot fired round the world," which of course returned to Concord on completing its circuit. But even the endless concourse of visitors, making the claims of any region wearisomely familiar, cannot diminish the simple solemnity of the town's historical as well as literary importance; and indeed it has so many medals for various merit that it is no wonder its residents have a way of speaking about it which some of us would call Bostonian. Emerson, Thoreau, Channing, Margaret Fuller, and Alcott dispersed a fragrance that attracted at once, and all they said was resonant with charity and courage.

In 1852 my mother conveyed to a member of her family unbroken murmurs of satisfaction in the peaceful experiences at The Wayside :

July 3, 1852.

Last week was memorable in the children's life by the occurrence of a party. Mrs. Emerson, with magnificent hospitality, invited all the children in town, from babyhood upwards (and their mothers), for a great festival. Rose and I were prevented from going by the arrival of three gentlemen from Boston, who stayed to tea; one being the bril liant Mr. Whipple. . . . First arrived General Solomon McNeil, an old veteran nearly seven feet tall, whose head was amazingly near the ceiling of our low dining-room. His gray hair stood up straight, full of demoniac energy, and his gray eyes flashed beneath overhanging brows. As he entered the room I advanced to meet him, and he said: "Mrs. Hawthorne, I presume. I have scarcely seen your husband, but I have known him well for fifteen years." At this he raised his hand and arm, as if he were wielding a sword with intent to do battle. . . . Mr. Hawthorne came in, and the old gentleman placed his hand with such force on his shoulder that you would have supposed he had dubbed him knight.

They left the room for the