200 



RECREATION. 



ploy boys for 50 cents a day each, who 

 would chase the geese off their big ranches 

 at much less outlay than they would incur 

 in buying the thousands of cartridges these 

 men burn. Then the geese and brant 

 would be saved for the 100,000 other 

 people in the West who have the right to 

 a few of them when they can get them. 

 Brother Young, do not ever again try to 

 justify yourself for having killed 100 or 200 

 brant in a day by claiming that they were 

 eating the wheat. Kill 5 or 10 in a day ; 

 then, if your object is to save the grain, 

 take a broom or a whip and shoo the birds 

 awav. — Editor. 



ELK, BEAR AND DEER ARE FOLLOWING 

 THE BUFFALO. 



A deputy game warden in Colorado re- 

 cently made some forcible remarks on the 

 senseless killing of big game. He said: 



The day is coming, and it is not 5 

 years away, when elk, deer, bear, and 

 all wild game will be so scarce in Colo- 

 rado that one can hunt for a week and 

 not get a shot. The way the big game 

 of the State is allowed to be exterminated 

 is an outrage. It will be the same story 

 as that of the buffalo, and now people 

 are lamenting the extermination of the 

 buffalo. When it is too late, and all 

 Colorado's game is extinct, they will also 

 regret the elk and the deer. 



I lived ahead of the railroad when it 

 was built across the plains from Topeka 

 to Denver. I had a portable house and 

 kept moving it as the road was built. I 

 saw much of the shameful waste of game 

 then. I have seen men shoot buffalo 

 down by hundreds, start the hide and 

 hitch a mule to it ; pull it off, and leave 

 the meat to rot. I have seen 20 flat cars 

 in one train stacked as high with buffalo 

 hides as they would pass under the 

 bridges, bound for the tanneries in Kan- 

 sas City. I have ridden on the pilot of 

 the engine when the road was building, 

 and in a run of 20 miles have seen 50,000 

 buffalo. 



A few years later I saw hundreds of 

 men going about over the plains gather- 

 ing wagonloads and trainloads of buf- 

 falo bones. That is how the buffalo 

 went. 



Now the other game is going the same 

 way. Nobody tries to stop it until it is 

 too late. Game Warden Harris is one 

 of the best wardens we ever had. He 

 would stop the slaughter if he were let 

 alone, but they do not give him any 

 monev. Politics figures in the matter, 

 and he is not allowed to do anything. If 

 they would give him a free hand and 

 money he would do it. 



The game is going fast. I can remem- 

 ber 10 years ago, when I lay hidden in 



the brush on Farwell mountain, and saw" 

 a band of elk pass by. I counted 400, 

 and there must have been 200 more. 

 When the last of the herd was passing 

 I shot a big bull and his head now 

 hangs in the Brown palace lobby. 



Now you can hunt the whole moun- 

 tain over and you will never see more 

 than 20 elk in one band, usually only 5 or 

 6. They have been killed off. 



It is alarming, too, to see how the deer 

 are thinned out. This year there are not 

 more than 1-6 as many fawns as there 

 were last year. The bucks have been 

 killed off until there are about 6 barren 

 does to every one that has a fawn. I have 

 been all over the game country and I 

 know. There are scarcely any fawns this 

 year. 



The grouse are being killed off, too, 

 and there is only about half a crop of 

 young ones. When you see a hen this 

 year with a brood of little ones she has 

 only 5 or 6, instead of 10 or 12, as usual. 

 That is because of hawks, eagles and 

 coyotes. The coyotes are following man 

 up into the mountains. I never heard 

 of a coyote up in my neighborhood until 

 the last few years. Now there are many. 



But it is the men that are killing every- 

 thing and will never be satisfied until 

 they have exterminated everything that 

 runs wild. — Exchange. 



THE DESTRUCTION OF ANIMAL LIFE IN 

 ALASKA. 



Beginning about September 1st, both na- 

 tive and white hunters cruise among the 

 islands in small boats and either hunt the 

 deer with jacklights or run them into the 

 water with dogs and shoot them while 

 swimming. The greatest slaughter occurs 

 about Wrangel, where the deer are most 

 abundant. Carcasses of deer often sell for 

 $1 each, and frequently the bodies are piled 

 up on the wharves like cordwood. I was 

 told by one person that he has seen the 

 loft of a warehouse hanging so thickly with 

 their bodies that it seemed impossible to 

 crowd in even one more. 



It is no uncommon occurrence for sloops 

 manned by small crews to return from a 

 few days' trip with 50 to 75 carcasses. 

 Often only the hindquarters are taken. 

 From my notebook I copy the following, 

 under the name of Harry Pigeon of Wran- 

 gel : "I saw 5 men return from a week's 

 hunt with 152 carcasses of deer aboard their 

 sloop." 



Deer skins have a commercial value of 

 10 to 20 cents each, and small as this is, 

 thousands are slaughtered for their hides 

 alone. While at Juneau I saw, in the Paci- 

 fic Coast Company's warehouse, 10 bundles 

 of deer hides, each containing about 70 

 skins, awaiting shipment. A few weeks 



