214 THE ANGLER AXD HUXTSMAX 



This and similar laws from which has sprung the mod- 

 ern hunting license, plainly reveals the discrimination in 

 those early days against the nonresident, which still con- 

 tinues as important sections of our later laws. The law" 

 quoted above was amended 23 years later so as to deny per- 

 sons the privilege of hunting deer who did not possess a free- 

 hold of 100 acres of land in the province, or who had not 

 tended 10,000 corn-hills during the previous year. If these 

 laws had progressed in the same direction on down to this 

 day, only the very wealthy would now be able to enjoy the 

 pursuit of game in localities wherein they were nonresident. 



Virginia, it is recorded, in the year 1840 prohibited 

 nonresidents from hunting wild fowl on beaches and 

 marshes below the head of tide water, retaining this re- 

 striction until as late as 1903. New Jersey, in 1846, made 

 nonresidents punishable by a fine of $15 and forfeiture of 

 their guns to the informer for trespassing with a gun, while 

 residents guilty of the same offense were liable merely to 

 a fine of $5 and costs, or less than a third of the penalty im- 

 posed on nonresidents. In 1854, North Carolina passed 

 the bill preventing nonresidents from hunting wild fowl in 

 Currituck county, the preamble of which reads as follows : 



"Whereas, large numbers of wild fowl collect during 

 the fall and winter, in the waters of Currituck county, 

 which are a source of great profit to the inhabitants thereof; 

 and whereas, persons from other States, not residents of 

 this State, shoot and kill, decoy and frighten the same, to the 

 great annoyance and detriment of the citizens of our own 

 State : Now Be it enacted, etc. " 



Under this law all persons who did not reside in the 

 State for at least one year were prohibited from hunting or 

 killing wild fowl in the waters of the county above men- 

 tioned. Quite recently in North Carolina and Virginia 

 nonresidents hunting wild fowl in certain counties were 

 prohibited from shooting from sink boxes or boats, in order 

 that this privilege might be reserved- for residents alone. 



