320 With Rod and Gun in New England 



past five years. Caribou, too, are largely on the increase, but they are 

 migratory animals, uneasy and unreliable. They roam about from section 

 to section without ceasing, and are not to be depended upon for hunting 

 purposes. 



But the moose, the most valuable, the most desirable, the most interest- 

 ing of the big game of our State, are becoming so rapidly depleted in 

 numbers, in consequence of the ever-increasing demand for their heads, 

 that their extermination is probable in the near future, unless the strictest 

 guard is put upon them. Indeed, one may say that only the protection 

 already given them has saved them from utter extinction before this time. 

 What few there are, are now confined to the eastern part of the State, and 

 Oxford and Franklin counties know them no more. 



Here, then, is the condition of the game of the State to-day. And it is 

 due, in my opinion, entirely to the laws made by the State for their pro- 

 tection, and to the enforcement of these laws. The constant increase in 

 the numbers of sportsmen who annually visit our hunting-grounds makes 

 it yet more necessary that these laws shall be stringent, and strictly and 

 justly administered. It is not necessary to enter into detail concerning 

 what the commission has done and has endeavored to do. Its labors, 

 which sometimes have been blocked by lack of interest and appreciation, 

 and sometimes have been hindered by lack of means, are becoming better 

 understood, I am glad to say, by the people of the State, and its needs 

 and capacities are being made a study by practical minds. 



The public are beginning to realize that a sport which demands the 

 service of over a thousand able-bodied men to carry on, a sport which is 

 the means of a revenue of so large a sum of money as is left in our State 

 each year by visitors, is something more than a sport, and the sentiment is 

 constantly growing in Maine that this resource should be cultivated and 

 encouraged. 



Probably no one thing has brought this more forcibly to the attention 

 of the people than has the much-talked of " guides' registration law," the 

 workings of which have already disclosed the fact that the sporting 

 interests of Maine are far larger than have ever been estimated. It is my 

 belief that this one thing is going to be so beneficial to the game of the 

 State that the sportsman of the future will find here greater attractions 

 than he does at the present time. 



