FROM THE GAME FIELDS 



A DISGUSTED HUNTER. 



Rochester, N. Y. 

 Editor Recreation : 



I arrived in the land of civilization a few 

 days ago from the Methow region, in North- 

 ern Washington. I was greatly disappointed 

 and disgusted to find that all kinds of game 

 is exceedingly scarce there, if not driven out 

 entirely. If the sale of game, pelts and 

 heads could be stopped, this rapid destruc- 

 tion would be checked, and men would not 

 journey hundreds or thousands of miles and 

 spend time and money, only to find that the 

 game of all kinds is disappearing at such a 

 rate that disappointment often stares one in 

 the face, where only a season or two before 

 royal sport was to be found. 



This is literally true, for on my recent trip 

 our party of 5, hunting several days, indiffer- 

 ent directions, and moving camp frequently 

 to cover fresh ground, saw only 1 head of 

 big game — a deer— which offered a glimpse 

 too brief even for a snap shot. This state of 

 affairs comes from such slaughter as that 

 mentioned by you in your trip to the Ash- 

 anola, years ago, when you found a sports- 

 man (?) from Victoria, B. C, in camp with 

 10 mountain sheep heads which he had 

 killed. Three or four years ago, when I 

 hunted with Richter, he told me of a man 

 who wintered a year or Ttwo before near where 

 we hunted, and who took away with him in the 

 spring over 60 sheep heads, all big fellows. 



Admiral Seymour, of the British navy, 

 who was stationed at Victoria several years 

 ago, made a trip of 6 or 8 weeks in the 

 Bridge River country, in B. C. He took out, 

 so I was told by reliable men who saw the 

 party when they returned, 28 huge heads 

 (bighorns) and an equal number of bucks 

 heads, bearing extra large antlers. The fol- 

 lowing year he did the same, using a camp 

 following of 10 or 12 Siwashes to drive the 

 game to his station. 



The rancher to whom we confided the re- 

 sponsibility of piloting us to good hunting 

 this season, was an offender of the same 

 stripe, for he told me how, 3 years ago, he 

 killed over 20 bighorns in 10 days, and car- 

 ried 19 of the heads to a taxidermist at 

 Vernon, B. C, who paid him $5 each for 

 them! 



My friend and myself paid him several 

 times as much as he realized from his butch- 

 ering trip, simply to take us where we might 

 get a shot or two at this noble game, and he 

 was unable to find a single specimen of big 

 game of any sort, with the exception of the 

 deer already mentioned. 



And this was the result of a trip of 19 days 

 through a wild country containing riD 

 ranches and little frequented even by pros. 

 pectors, and which appeared to be a veritable 

 paradise for game. 



Our guide, an ex-trapper and a fairly 

 capable man, was as much surprised and 



disappointed as we. He did not offer to 



abate a nickel of his charge, how< 

 though he had guaranteed that we should 

 have "plenty of sport, and find 

 and deer." 



We shall soon have no huntinj 

 worth commemorating; no literature 

 in the way of reminiscences for such 1 

 cations as Recreation, unless thisdestrui 

 tion is checked. 



I am glad that you are "agin" all fishing 

 and shooting contests, having in vie* 

 killing of the largest amount of game. Such 

 affairs are relics of barbarism, and 1 

 should be ashamed of themselves who would 

 propose such butchering contests. A 

 outspoken remarks, like those you ad- 

 dressed to Mr. Mowry, will go a long 

 toward crystallizing a public sentiment which 

 I am sure exists and which only i.< 

 arousing from its dormant condition to frown 

 down such exhibitions forever. 



Now agitate the matter of prohibition of 

 sale of game; i. e., the use of it as a market 

 commodity; for therein lies the temptation 

 to its pursuit and untimely destruction. Let 

 each state followthe example of Maine and 

 restrict the amount of game allowed to lie 

 killed by any one person, and enact that all 

 game in transit be accompanied by its owner 

 or in some way identified as belon 

 the man who killed it. 



Of course, there is game to be found in 

 much less time from Winthrop than wl 

 we went in search of it ^oats and deer and 

 some bear — but having used all our time 

 money in cutting trails through an.; 

 the supposed game paradise, and wandering 

 around in it, making calls on the n 

 who were not there, we had no time or op- 

 portunity left to seek game in near-by l< 

 ities where it really livid, though in numl 

 sadly reduced from those of formei 

 Chas. 11. K 



MORE ABOUT Till. BIGGES1 II 



bug OF nil-: x ; 



From / 



In the September number oi 

 Divide we exposed tl 

 and the humbug ol the 

 " Hoofs, Claws and Antler - 

 Mountains," published I 

 of I )on\ er. This jusl 

 fraud has brought forth 

 Thayer, which is quite 1 

 Claws and Antlers " in the ma" 

 genuousness and humbu 



The circular is aesthel 

 in two coli 



should- an illustn I 



publish* 

 ion, nit, we i 

 follow 



283 



