11(S Thirty-ninfh Annual Meeting 



meager and inadequate and there was a general demand 

 among the sportsmen of the state for the enactment of such 

 a law as would give relief by making the other man stop 

 catching fish and killing game. 



The common run of land owners are alwaxs hankering 

 after the Roman law which ga\'e the land owner the abs()lute 

 title and right to the game and fish found upon his lands. 

 Even if a wounded animal dragged itself upon the land of an 

 old Roman farmer it was the landowner's just as much as 



The western barbarians 

 howe\'er, where might made right, 

 placed the title of all wild animals in the king, and he main- 

 tained his standing army theieb}-. WMien the consumers rose 

 up in their might and forced King Jolm to hold a special ses- 

 sion at Runnymede. they got out of him the greatest game 

 and fish law the world has ever seen, called the Magna 

 Charta and Forestry Laws. 



There were a few things in the bill about the lives and lib- 

 erties of his subjects l)ut in those days not. so much was 

 thought about these. Tlie great victory was the concessions 

 concerning the game and fish and especially the fishing in 

 the rivers of England. The right to take certain amounts of 

 the food fishes from the i i\-ers was the thing that the barons 

 of that day prized abo\'e all others granted to them. But the 

 king kept all the rights in the game and fish not expressly con- 

 ceded to the people. I'hat is the law of this land. The state 

 holds full title to all the game and fish and has the right to 

 prescribe the conditions under which they may be taken. 



More than anything else, T think, the trading of a pound 

 of l)rook trout for a pound of bacon caused the people to 

 murmur and get ready for an<^ther Runnymede. The Gov- 

 ernor, who always had a remarkal)le ear f(^r a grc^ruidswell, 

 appointed a commission of killers to draft a protective law 

 for the ])rotection of the game and fish. On this commission 

 was one member who at one time had been a killer but who 

 liad suffered a change of heart to the extent at least of being 

 al)le to enjov outdoor life in the woods without wanting to 



