30 REPORT OF THE FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



The Patrol Force. 



There are in the emploj' of the California Fish and Game Commission 

 sixty-eight assistants or deputies who do active patrol duty. Additional 

 temporary assistants are employed during the open seasons. The 

 regular assistants are stationed in various parts of the state where 

 fishing and hunting conditions are the best and in centrally located 

 places from which they can cover to the best advantage the district 

 allotted to them. The assistants are not bound by any arbitrary lines 

 but are expected to extend their activities into adjoining districts. 

 In this way, there is left no unguarded area such as there would be if 

 they Avere bounded by fixed lines. 



Each assistant is encouraged to work with the one in charge of the 

 adjoining district and whenever help is needed to bring violators to 

 justice, the two are expected to assist each other as fully as possible. 

 Deputies are often concentrated in one locality to apprehend chronic 

 violators and new men are sent into old territory in order to make the 

 work more effective. 



All of the employees and assistants of the Fish and Game Commis- 

 sion are now under civil service regulations. The assistants are selected 

 after a rigid examination. This examination, consisting of two parts — 

 one written, the other oral — is given by a board of examiners, the 

 members of which have had many years of experience in the enforce- 

 ment of the game laws. In the oral examination, the candidate is called 

 before the examiners. Each examiner then checks on a form the various 

 characteristics of the applicant — his appearance, health, decision, 

 manner, information, reliability, ambition, body-build, alertness — in 

 fact, every characteristic that has any bearing upon the duties to be 

 performed. Questions are asked that are intended to bring out the 

 candidate's understanding of game and fish conditions and his ability 

 to look after himself and camp stock under all conditions and his under- 

 standing of what game conservation really means. In this way, the 

 candidates peculiarly fitted for practically every branch of the service 

 are secured. Although ratings are made separately by each examiner, 

 invariably the same conclusion in regard to the candidate's fitness is 

 reached. The written part of the examination includes questions that 

 will bring out the candidate's idea as to the meaning of the various 

 laws, his ability to tell from hypothetical questions as to whether a viola- 

 tion has occurred and his knowledge of the habits of the various species 

 of game to be found in the state. None of the questions is particularly 

 difficult and should be found easy by the candidates having a general 

 knowledge of the duties of an assistant and of the interpretation of 

 the game and fish laws. By reason of the care taken in the selection 

 of assistants, it will be possible in a few years to have a force of men 

 who not only have the natural ability, but who have a very deep interest 



