FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



141 



when it absorbs it put on more and let it dry in the 

 shade, or, better still, smoke it a little. Never stretch 

 the skin out and tack it, nor hang it up by the nose. 

 Now your skin is taken care of, clean all the meat 

 off the skull, dig out the brains, and be sure to clean 

 and save the under jaw, as it is necessary in mount- 

 ing the head. When it is possible to get yovir heads 

 out without skinning, I prefer to have them that 

 way ; but by following these instructions I can 

 guarantee you a fine iob. 



FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



Fort Resolution, Great Slave Lake, 



April 29th, 1895. 

 Editor Recreation. 



Yours of the 25th Sept. last, reached me on 

 the 1 2th of March; so you see I am far away 

 from the post-office— 850 miles. I cannot go 

 every morning before breakfast and get my 

 mail, as you do. This letter of yours came all 

 this distance by dog-sledge, with the Hudson 

 Bay Company's packet, which weighs some- 

 times 400 pounds to start with, dogs and men 

 being changed at every fort. It is carried in 

 this manner away up to the Arctic ocean 

 down the great Mackenzie river, over 1,900, 

 miles. I should like to write you often but 

 it is rather difficult at present for this 

 reason. As soon as this lake opens out so 

 that I can navigate, I must cross and go 

 down the Mackenzie river to look after some 

 mines, cross over the Rocky Mountains in 

 the arctic circle, some time in July, and go 

 down in the great Yukon valley mining- 

 district where I have been once before. 



I have had wide experience on the frontier 

 and in the West. I started out from New 

 York State, my home, when but a small 

 boy, 20 years ago last summer. Hunted the 

 buffalo on the plains in early days, had 

 plenty of trouble with the Indians, and am 

 still on the frontier. Have been over here 

 three years collecting specimens. That is 

 how I came to get the wood buffalo I sent 

 home last summer. Have also hunted and 

 trapped lots of fine furs. I sold them at 

 Edmonton, Alberta. I traveled nine months, 

 on snow-shoes, to kill my wood buffalo. They 

 are very wild and scarce. I started from 

 Chipewyan the 27th of July, 1893, went up 

 Peace river about 70 miles with my boat, 

 loaded with a two years' supply of provisions. 

 I built my cabin on the banks of the Peace 

 river, which flows down toward the Arctic. 

 This is the southern limit of the wood buffalo. 

 Their range is from here north to Great 

 Slave lake, about 200 by 300 miles in area, 

 and the country is very swampy. You can- 

 not travel over it in summer. The buffalo 

 are hunted only in winter, on snow shoes. 

 They live in brushy and marshy places. In 

 winter they feed on the tall grass that lies un- 

 der three to four feet of snow. They root or 

 nose about in the deep snow and keep fat 

 all winter. The one I got was an old bull 

 and a very large one, 10 feet long and 8 feet 

 around the brisket. There were seven in 

 the herd and all ran in different directions 

 when the first shot was fired, throwing the 

 snow so thick around them that it was hard 

 to see them. 



If I don't lose your address I may write 

 again when I am settled in the Yukon coun- 

 try. I have 1,700 miles to go next summer 

 all alone in a small boat, and a goo 1 many 

 rapids to run. Am not living at Fore Chip- 

 pewyan this winter. Have moved to a point 

 312 miles north from there. 



John C. Hatch. 



Ten Sleep, Wyo. 



Editor Recreation. 



Your attack on the skin-hunters of Wy- 

 oming meets approval in all quarters, but 

 conversant as you are with the mountains in 

 this State, you must understand how utterly 

 impracticable it is to protect game with 

 anything less than a small army. I believe 

 that the only way to preserve the game, here 

 or elsewhere, is to make every settler or 

 resident land-owner personally interested 111 

 the work. 



As the laws stand at present, the majority 

 of ranchmen feel that they are aimed at 

 them, for the benefit of the rich city sports- 

 men. 



When you say to a ranchman, "You can't 

 eat game, except in season," you make him 

 a poacher, because he is neither going hun- 

 gry himself nor have his family do so. No 

 one appreciates better than he the benefits 

 that accrue from well-stocked streams and 

 forests ; but the bulk of all game is in 

 new countries being settled by men who 

 have been pioneering all their lives. Most 

 of them are poor — none rich, and the im- 

 portance of wild meat, to help out their mea- 

 ger larder, cuts no small figure in inducing 

 them to the frontier. 



I am personally acquainted with more 

 than one family who would almost starve 

 but for the game. I heard one remark a few 

 days ago : 



"I hate to kill a doe, now, but a fellow 

 can't see his children hungry and I can't find 

 a buck." 



If laws are made prohibiting such people 

 from killing for the table they at once be- 

 come enemies to that law ; whereas, if they 

 were allowed to kill for their necessities they 

 would value the game enough to preserve 

 and spare all the females possible. Laws 

 are useless unless enforced, and no one but 

 actual settlers can enforce them. They will 

 not do so, as long as the laws injure them. 



I know a family that has consumed eight 

 deer in eight weeks. Seven of those eight 

 were does, and each would have had two 

 kids. Put that family down for 22 deer in 

 eight weeks and then ask where the game is 

 going ? 



It was a case of sheer necessity that com- 

 pelled the man to kill the game ; but,do 

 suppose that after having to break a law he 

 is going to prevent someone else from doing 

 the same, even if the other fellow t.ike^ only 

 the hide? No, sir; and until the law allows 

 settlers to supply their own tables you n< 

 can enforce it in a country so vast, ru 

 and wild as the mountains of Wyoming. 



A. XlMKUli. 



