The Creating of Game Refuges 



It is to be borne in mind that all through this 

 California country there exists a race of hunters 

 active, determined men, who passionately love this 

 diversion. The people there have not been so long 

 graduated as we of the Atlantic Coast from the 

 conditions of the frontier. The ozone of a new 

 country stirs more quickly the predatory instinct, 

 never quite dead in any virile race. The rifle slips 

 easily from its scabbard, and there in plain sight 

 before them are the forest-clad mountains, a mile 

 above their heads, in the cool and vital air, ever 

 beckoning the hunter to be up and away. These 

 people feel in their blood the call of the wild. 

 With a very considerable proportion of the people 

 upon farms, and still more in villages and small 

 towns, the Fall hunt is the commanding interest 



of feed. I believe that this was the principal reason why 

 so many obtained permits. The abundant rain made camp- 

 ing more pleasant, as it started up springs which had been 

 dry for several years. I believe that this very thing, how- 

 ever, also tended to protect the game as it permitted them 

 to scatter more than for several years before, as water was 

 more abundant. With all the increase in guns and hunters 

 I do not think that any more deer were killed than during 

 the summer of 1902." (Letter from Forest Supervisor, Mr. 

 Everett B. Thomas, Los Angeles, Feb. 13, 1904.) It is to 

 be noted that in the southern California reserves, on the 

 ground of precaution against forest fires, no shotguns may 

 be carried into the reserves. As a result quail have greatly 

 increased in numbers. 



417 



