266 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



that the bounty would induce him to do, and at a time when the 

 fur will bring more than a great deal of early caught furs would 

 bring, including the bounty. 



It is quite doubtful as to mink being very destructive to birds 

 or their nests, and as to the destruction of poultry, it is a very easy 

 and inexpensive matter for any poultry raiser to arrange his poultry 

 house so as to take any prowling mink that should come about his 

 premises. 



Now, I would suggest to the bird hunter, or as he prefers to be 

 called, "sportsman," that if he will leave his automatic gun and 

 his bird dog at home, and merely take a good double-barrel breech- 

 loader and go into the bush, and "walk up" his birds, instead of 

 having a dog to show the bird to him, he will do far more to pro- 

 tect the game bird than any bounty law will do ! This the sports- 

 man must do, or the game birds of this state will soon be a thing 

 of the past. 



About 1870, there was a move begun to check the slaughter of 

 the deer in this state, but it was only in a half-hearted way. The 

 writer circulated the first petition to get the law enacted pro- 

 hibiting the hounding of deer. After some years the law prohibited 

 the chasing of deer with dogs, but the law could not be enforced 

 for the very reason that these same sportsmen wished to hound 

 deer. He would go on to the streams where there were but few 

 inhabitants, and hire all of the people living in the neighborhood 

 to take their dogs to the hills and start them on the trail of deer. 

 The "sportsman" would lay in ambush and shoot the deer when 

 they came to water, providing they were able to see the sights on 

 their guns sufficiently clear to get a bead on the deer. 



These "sportsmen" would pay the natives a good sum for 

 their services and would often buy hounds at high prices and 

 bring them to the locality where they intended to hound deer and 

 pay some one living in the neighborhood a good price to keep their 

 dogs from one season to another. These "sportsmen" were sure to 

 make the constable, whose duty it was to report this violation of 

 the deer law, a present of a fine fishing rod or some other article 

 which might be a ten or twenty dollar bill. 



