54 



HUNTIN^ A -ii FISHING IN MONTANA 



Rising Wolf Mountain and Upper Two Medicine Lal<e, Glacier Park 



The Game Warden 



By the Late J. M. Kennedy of Libbv 



"At each session of the legislature in Montana budding statesmen 

 and rising politicians, anxious to leave a brilliant trail along the path 

 of glory, introduce a few bills having to do with the game warden's 

 department. Since its establishment that department of the state gov- 

 ernment has been the football of the politicians and the Mecca, polit- 

 ically speaking, for all the fellows who are anxious to get in the legis- 

 lative honor roll. The approaching session, doubtless, will witness the 

 introduction of many bills having to do with the game warden's depart- 

 ment. The average man in Montana, who takes an interest in hunting 

 and fishing, has great difficulty, in recent years, in keeping track of 

 the innovations and changes in the game law. Even the best informed 

 sportsmen in the state frankly confess they are in doubt today as to 

 just what the present status of the game law is. That is an unfortunate 

 condition. It tends to bickering and misunderstandings, unconscious 

 violations of the law, embarrassment for the honest citizen who is 

 really desirous of observing the statutes, and it also superinduces un- 

 necessary and unjust criticism of the officers of the department who 

 seek to enforce the law without being unnecessarily harsh with the 

 citizens. 



"But the game law, as it stands at present, needs some fixing; 

 some parts of the statute need fixing mighty badly. Over in Xorth- 

 western Montana, the haven of the big wild game that is making Mon- 

 tana the sportsman's paradise of the Union, the annual slaughter of 



