56 STALKS ABROAD 



The Indian question is a serious one, and though 

 possibly it does not affect the majority of sportsmen 

 who hunt in British Columbia, Burton had his chances 

 of a good stag quite spoiled by Indian meat hunters. 



When we reached the camp from which we in- 

 tended to hunt mule deer, we found the whole place 

 covered with signs of Indians, and of dead and 

 wounded deer. 



The most irritating part of the whole thing was 

 the discovery of some nice mule deer heads which 

 had been recently killed and left to rot. They were, 

 of course, no use to the Indians, who do not value 

 them as trophies and are forbidden by law to sell 

 them. It really was annoying, for late in the season 

 the meat of the does is much better than that of 

 the stags, and it was only slackness on the part of 

 the Indians which made them kill males. Still, there 

 was no getting over the fact that they had frightened 

 all the deer out of the country. 



The case of the Indians is bad enough, but the 

 privileges enjoyed by free miners are an absolute 

 scandal. It is utterly out of the question to prove 

 that a man is not actually prospecting ; he may not 

 tap at a rock all day long, but so long as he is 

 outside a town and says that he is prospecting it 

 is impossible to dispute him. Then as the provisions 

 of the Act have no application to him with regard 

 to game killed for food, there is no limit to what 

 he may do, and what many of them actually do do, 

 with impunity. 



