The Wanton Way 39 



fish as with the brutally destructive laws that permit 

 fishermen to catch four or five times as many fish as 

 they should. There are a great many sportsmen who 

 sincerely believe that it is all right to take all the fish 

 and game of all kinds that the law allows. Whenever 

 any destruction is waged on that basis I always charge 

 it to the abominably liberal laws that in many cases 

 seemed framed to promote destruction. Ninety-nine 

 per cent, of the streams of this country very soon will 

 be so nearly destitute of fish that fishing will become a 

 lost art. In the Rocky Mountains the overfishing 

 abuse is particularly vicious and destructive because 

 in those cold streams the fish mature slowly, their 

 food is very scarce and dear, and the fish are so hungry 

 that they are easily caught. It is an easy matter to 

 completely fish out a mountain stream in the Rocky 

 Mountain region or in the Pacific States. In the State 

 of Wyoming some very aggravated cases of wanton 

 fish destruction by indifferent rod and line fishermen 

 have lately been brought to my attention/' 



Dr. Hornaday is an Angler, and his views and 

 practices are endorsed by all Anglers. His great book 

 on wild life conservation is brimful of practical detail 

 and should be in the library of all who are interested in 

 the preservation of our fishes, birds, and quadruped 

 game. Here is a sample of the Doctor's vigorous style 

 in his admirable campaign against the exterminator: 

 "A few years ago, certain interests in Pennsylvania 

 raised a great public outcry against the alleged awful 

 destruction of fish in the streams of Pennsylvania by 

 herons. ... A little later on, however, the game 

 commissioners found that the herons remaining in 

 Pennsylvania were far too few to constitute a pest to 

 fish life, and furthermore, the millinery interests 



