572 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



I speak not now of those who hunt for game only, for, 

 as a general rule, they have no business, which could 

 fatigue their minds, at least, if they have minds to be 

 fatigued. If they would devote the same effort to some 

 other honest pursuit, their gains would be vastly greater, 

 taking the season through. That class of men have always 

 been called shiftless, and have lacked that degree of 

 respectability for which all honest men should strive. 



I regret that there are some who aspire to the name of 

 sportsmen, who, on occasion, fall beneath that rank. I 

 refer now to those who do not hesitate to shoot game 

 or take fish out of season. In a wild and uninhabited 

 or sparsely settled country, where the streams are swarm- 

 ing with fish, which are never taken because there is no 

 one there to take them, or in the far-distant wilds, where 

 an abundance of game is found, which is rarely hunted, 

 game laws would be out of place; and so it would be quite 

 proper at any time of the year to take as much meat, or as 

 many fish, as one's necessities might require — but even 

 then, to capture more than could be utilized would be to 

 indulge a brutish and unmanly instinct. But in countries 

 where civilization has, to a large extent, driven off the wild 

 animals or game birds, all right-thinking men must appre- 

 ciate the necessity for laws to protect them from extermi- 

 nation; and these laws have just as binding a force upon 

 every citizen as that law which says "Thou shalt not 

 steal." At least, such is its legal obligation, and so, 

 indeed, should it be binding morally. No game law can 

 ever be framed which will meet the approval of all; and if 

 one man says that he thinks that the close season com- 

 mences too early, and therefore he will not observe it, 

 another may, with equal propriety, claim that there should 

 be no law which would prevent him from shooting game 

 animals when he pleases — his father, fifty years ago, shot 

 all he wanted, and why should he not enjoy the same right? 



He forgets that conditions are changed, and he must 

 admit that it would be very unwise to exterminate all our 

 game birds and animals; and yet, unless he and his like 



