- June 20, 1921 – friend of JSA to S. C. Bishop, State Zoologist, Albany
Dear Mr. Bishop:
An assistant of mine was fishing on Schoharie Creek yesterday, for bass. He saw a bull frog, and not knowing that there was any law on them, he caught it and put it in his creel alive.
A short time after he was accosted by a game constable, who, on the score of his having a frog in his possession, arrested him, whereupon Mr. Underwood, my friend, let the frog (which was unharmed) go, and it swam back into the stream.
But that did not alter the circumstances, and at the request of the game warden a local justice of the peace fined him $10.
It seems to me that in a case of this kind, where there was no criminal intent, the case should have been dismissed with a reprimand and proper instructions as to the law.
Can you suggest any means of redress? I would have brought this to Mr. Pratt’s attention, but I no longer have him to appeal to.
Sincerely yours,