24 



HUNTING AND FISHING IN MONTANA 



iVIountain Sheep (Lamb). Taken Near Upper Dam on Madison River 



an elk has been killed within the forbidden limits or not, much less 

 can he secure a conviction should an elk be killed in territory so de- 

 scribed. We should have better and not more game laws. An edi- 

 torial in "Forest and Stream" for October, 1920, states the case very 

 well as follows: 



"For a few years game and fish laws were new and un- 

 tried, so that frequent changes were to be expected, but now 

 the efforts of our legislators may well be directed toward sim- 

 plifying existing laws rather than to adding new and confus- 

 ing sections to those we have. 



"From time to time attempts have been made to secure unl- 

 torm legislation, but the result in the main has not been en- 

 couraging. Legislators are chiefly concerned in pleasing local 

 interests and ignore the fact that only by co-operation can 

 the laws of different states be so harmonized that two impor- 

 tant objects may be attained. These are, the conservation of 

 breeding birds and fish; and the relief from legal complications 

 of the law-abiding sportsman of one state who shoots in an- 

 other, paying liberally for the privilege. 



"We are almost daily asked for opinions on complications 

 that arise through different interpretations of vaguely worded 

 sections in the game laws of various states. It is not remark- 

 able that one not versed in legal terms may often place an 

 erroneous construction on a clause. Game wardens and sports- 

 men alike err in this respect, and there is ample proof that 

 these men err not through intention, but because they are un- 

 familiar with untangling legal knots. In the final analysis 

 there is apparent, therefore, a need of laws couched in plain 

 terms and shorn of all confusing verbiage, so that sportsman, 

 warden, judge and lawyer, may understand thom." 

 There can be little hope for uniform legislation for even one state, 



much less for all of them. Even in Montana such diverse conditions 

 are found in different parts of the state that it seems almost impos- 

 .siblo to frame a law which will fit the whole state or meet the ap- 

 proval of a majority of the members of the legislative assembly, and 

 at the same time prove effective. 



The writer has tried to do it and knows. 



