THE ANGLER AND H.rXTsM.AN 135 



rectly the result of tHe great slaughter encompassed by the 

 damnable and unspeakable game hog and market hunter. 

 But sooner or later the sportsman will not even be able to 

 locate the game he desires by these long trips taken at so 

 much time and expense, for the game hog and market hunt- 

 er are right on the job all the time, slaughtering and trap- 

 ping the noble wild creatures in their distant haunts and 

 robbing you of your share of nature's stores. It is easily 

 seen what condition this will eventually bring about. 

 It doesn't take a pessimist to see the end of the beginning 

 in this case. The hand-writing appears on the wall, and it 

 spells nothing less than total extinction in a few more years, 

 if this needless and cruel slaughter is not brought to a halt. 

 I have already pointed out my idea of how to effect this halt 

 not by enacting more game laws, but by rigidly and dili- 

 gently enforcing those we already have enacted. That is 

 the only practical solution to the problem, so far as I am 

 able to see. 



As to the bear, some folks make the claim he does not 

 deserve protection, accusing him of pilfering the farmer's 

 pigsties, and placing numberless other misdemeanors at his 

 door. 



If those making these accusations against bruin will 

 but take the trouble to thoroughly investigate each instance 

 of this kind, they will find that it is not the bear who is to 

 blame for these thefts but the more sly and cunning thief, 

 the sneaking mountain lion. The latter will probably effect 

 the slaughter, devour all he wants of the kill, which, let us 

 presume is a pig, and then bruin will come along, get a scent 

 of fresh meat, go and finish what the lion left, and then Mi-. 

 Farmer will come out next morning, see the huge bear 

 tracks, cuss the innocent bear, and perhaps organize a posse 

 of neighbors to help find and kill him for a crime for which 

 the mountain lion, and not he, is responsible. Every stu- 

 dent of nature knows ia bear will not ordinarily molest any 

 animal, with the exception of small rodents and insects, mi- 



