1010] FOREST, GAME AND FISH WARDEN. 29 



dollar for re-stocking, except in a few localities, will soon be rewarded 

 by having a hunters paradise. 



Assuming that we ha,ve 1000 deer yet remaining in our State, and 

 figuring under the rigid protection given them under our law, that they 

 will double in number every year, which they will do if properly pro- 

 tected; it is interesting to see that at the end of ten years:, it will be 

 possible to count them by the hundreds of thousands. The State of 

 Maine, that fifteen years ago numbered the deer only by the hundred, 

 as we do now, can now allow fifteen to twenty thousand dieer killed; 

 every year, and still increase their supply by the thousand each year. 

 "What is true of Maine aad other states, can, and will be true of West 

 Virginia, by a proper enforcement of the law we now have. 



The killing of game should, as has been done in our own State, be taken 

 out of the hands of commerce, and be made entirely sport, and by thus 

 eliminating the pot or market hunter, it will soon be demonstrated that 

 West Virginia is the greatest game state in the whole Union. 



RestocTcinp Our Streams. 



The time has come, when most states must resort to artificial means 

 if they hope to retain their supply of either game or fish. Many states 

 have already established fish hatcheries of their own, and are planting 

 millions of fish in their streams each year, while West Virginia has siot 

 even taken advantage of the generosity of the Government, to ask for 

 their pro-rata share of fish for stocking purposes, that the Government 

 will furnish free of charge. 



No state in the whole Union is so bountifully blesed with pure clear 

 streams of water, a? West Virginia, and these crystal streams of water, 

 taking their rise in the lofty mountain peaks, and wending their way 

 through miles of unbroken forests to larger streams, that ultimately 

 reach the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, afford scenery, tfcat in 

 picturesque beauty is not surpassed in America, and offers the most de- 

 lightful fishing places to be found in the whole world. 



According to information furnished by Hon. Geo. M Bowers, United 

 States Fist Commissioner, we have in our State, over one hundred spe- 

 cies of fish, and nrnonp- them, some of the most valuable food and finest 

 game fishes in the United States. 



The most important of. the srame fishes, are the two species of black bass, 

 viz.: the small mouth and large mouth bass. The principal food fishes 

 are the wall-eyed pike, nmrcallonge, rock bass, white cat, channel cat, white 

 perch, and the different kinds of suckers. The brook or mountain trout, is 

 possibly the finest and most interesting fish found within our State, and a 

 week's vacation along some mountain stream, where the foot-steps of man 

 seldom trod, in quest of this beautiful spotted beauty, is more to be de- 

 sired than the fountain of youth, hunted for by Ponce do Leon, in the land 

 of Florida flowers. This fish is a native of our mountain streams, and 

 while the march of industrial development, and the ruthless methods of 

 the dynamiter for a time threatened its destruction and extinction, for 

 the past few years, it seems to be gaining, and by proper re-stocking and 



