The Oregon Sportsman 



Volume I DECEMBER 1913 Number 4 



THE SPIRIT OF SPORTSMANSHIP. 



One of the most hopeful signs in fish and game protection 

 throughout Oregon is the rapid development of a better class of 

 sportsmanship in angling and hunting. The protection of game 

 and the enforcement of game laws are matters of growth and 

 education. Formerly game was abundant. The country was 

 unsettled and little or no attention was paid to game laws. This 

 is the case even at the present time in some sections of the State. 

 Yet in the advance of civilization it becomes necessary to have 

 game laws and to live up to these laws. The effectiveness of 

 game protection is governed by the interest of the people and 

 the spirit of those who hunt and fish. 



Many people wink at the tales of an angler when he con- 

 tinually boasts of the number of fish he catches and the size of 

 the big ones that get away. They also look with suspicion upon 

 the hunter who brags about the number of birds he shoots. The 

 majority of people know that a true sportsman does not judge 

 the success of his hunt by the size of his game bag. 



There are certain things in the advance of civilization and 

 in the rapid development of firearms that help to discourage 

 good sportsmanship. The modern, up-to-date gun has it over 

 the old-style gun because it is a cheaper instrument with a far 

 greater killing capacity. The substitution of the pump and au- 

 tomatic shotgun for the single and double-barreled shotgun en- 

 courages a great deal of carelessness among hunters. It takes 

 a deal of training to make a real sportsman out of a hunter with 

 an automatic gun. It is like trying to make a useful American 

 citizen out of a boy whose father has left him a fortune. 



The modern rapid-fire guns encourage hunters to take 

 greater chances in killing and to be less careful in their shoot- 



Fag-e One 



