WILDERNESS RESERVES 291 



and ducks and prairie-chickens to rot after he has slain 

 them. Such a man is wholly obnoxious; and, indeed, so 

 is any man who shoots for the purpose of establishing a 

 record of the amount of game killed. To my mind this 

 is one very unfortunate feature of what is otherwise the 

 admirably sportsmanlike English spirit in these matters. 

 The custom of shooting great bags of deer, grouse, par- 

 tridges, and pheasants, the keen rivalry in making such 

 bags, and their publication in sporting journals, are 

 symptoms of a spirit which is most unhealthy from every 

 standpoint. It is to be earnestly hoped that every Ameri- 

 can hunting or fishing club will strive to inculcate among 

 its own members, and in the minds of the general pub- 

 lic, that anything like an excessive bag, any destruction 

 for the sake of making a record, is to be severely rep- 

 robated. 



But after all, this kind of perverted sportsman, un- 

 worthy though he be, is not the chief actor in the de- 

 struction of our game. The professional skin or market 

 hunter is the real offender. Yet he is of all others the 

 man who would ultimately be most benefited by the pres- 

 ervation of the game. The frontier settler, in a thor- 

 oughly wild country, is certain to kill game for his own 

 use. As long as he does no more than this, it is hard 

 to blame him; although if he is awake to his own interests 

 he will soon realize that to him, too, the live deer is worth 

 far more than the dead deer, because of the way in which 

 it brings money into the wilderness. The professional 

 market hunter who kills game for the hide, or for the 

 feathers, or for the meat, or to sell antlers and oth*r 



