FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



447 





asked by friends to hold on until a Legis- 

 lature meets that will make a law which 

 can be enforced. The present law does 

 not stand; neither judge nor jury can 

 be found to enforce it ; and the public is 

 not in sympathy with its provisions. When 

 I finally lay down my office I will make 

 statements that will surprise you. 



Undoubtedly the Lacey act will give us 

 a good deal more ground to stand on than 

 we have had ; but what can be accom- 

 plished without funds to work with? We 

 have no appropriation ; and what can you 

 expect of unpaid officers. The county 

 wardens are mostly creatures of the county 

 commissioners who elect them. Only 6 

 counties have wardens, and the only help 

 we receive is from the forest rangers, who 

 are suspended for want of funds when 

 most needed. 



I have tried hard to add members to the 

 L. A. S,, but it is worse than begging for 

 a living. Still, I shall continue to try. 

 R. A. Waagner, Bozeman, Mont. 



I have for a long time fully appreciated 

 the great difficulty under which you and 

 the other friends of game protection in 

 your State are laboring. You certainly 

 have about the poorest system of game and 

 fish laws of any State in the Union, and 

 this would seem to indicate that you have 

 about the poorest outfit of law makers to 

 be found anywhere on the continent. Of 

 course, your Legislature would not admit 

 this, but it is said that by their fruits ye 

 shall know them. It is a burning shame 

 that a body of representative citizens, 

 charged with caring for the interests of 

 the people of a great State should have 

 allowed the game which once covered Mon- 

 tana to be slaughtered and driven to the 

 verge of extinction as it has been. When 

 we realize that probably 90 per cent, of all 

 the farmers and ranchmen and probably 50 

 per cent of the business men of your State 

 shoot or fish more or less it seems in- 

 credible that they should allow their oppor- 

 tunities for indulging in these sports to be 

 swept away as they have been. Evidently 

 the balance of the voting power is held 

 by the miners and other laboring men, who 

 pay almost no taxes, but who can vote as 

 early and as often as anybody. Your law 

 makers are evidently swayed by this ele- 

 ment, and have failed to provide your 

 commission with a fund for enforcing such 

 game and fish laws as you have because 

 these sons of toil object to paying taxes 

 for such purposes. 



Still you should not be discouraged. 

 Public sentiment among your people is 

 growing in the right direction and the 

 League is leading it and developing it 

 ''very day. Some of your newspapers are 

 also doing good work in this direction and 



others will doubtless fall into line in time. 

 Keep up the agitation, and in time you 

 will be able to induce your Legislature to 

 make the needed amendments to your laws 

 and to appropriate money to enforce them. 

 — Editor. 



The above was written in in 1901 and the 

 game laws of Montana have since been ma- 

 terially amended and improved.— Editor. 



BIG GAME IN THE ROCKIES. 



Donald, B. C. 

 Editor Recreation: 



Having received an invitation to visit a 

 friend, who was spending the winter on 

 his ranch, in the Rockies, M and I start- 

 ed, hoping to have a week's sport with deer 

 and other game. We left the train on the 

 Canadian Pacific railroad, at Armstrong, 

 for a drive of 15 miles. Our friend, George 

 , was awaiting us. 



Early the following morning we started 

 out. Jim went alone, taking a shot gun. 

 The rest of us hunted in pairs. My com- 

 panion and I found tracks so numerous 

 it was impossible to follow any of them, 

 so we simply walked over the scrub-cov- 

 ered hills until noon. 



As that was my first experience in deer 

 hunting, I was considerably discouraged. 

 My companion assured me we would sure- 

 ly see deer before long. Although we 

 beat the woods thoroughly all the after- 

 noon, it was only to be disappointed. 

 Toward sunset we started down the moun- 

 tain to camp. 



Two of the hunters were already in, hav- 

 ing met with no better success. While 

 talking over the day's hunt, a faint call 

 came from the woods. On going a quarter 

 of a mile in the direction of the call, we 

 saw Jim, seated on a log, the shot gun 

 across his knees, while at his feet lay a 

 Duck. Together we dragged the deer to the 

 ranch. 



I spent the greater part of the next day 

 following the tracks of a lynx, but without 

 getting a shot. George killed a buck about 

 4 miles from the house, but could not bring 

 it in alone. At daylight he and I went 

 after his buck. 



Now it may seem an easy task for 2 men 

 to drag a deer 4 miles, but it was among 

 the mountains, over fallen timber and 

 through thick scrub. We tied the deer's 

 legs together and ran a pole through them. 

 The ground proved too rough for carry- 

 ing such a weight, so a rope was tied to the 

 buck's head, while we took turns in drag- 

 ging him. It was work all the way. Home 

 was reached late at night. 



On the last day of my stay, accompanied 

 by another hunter, I took a new route, 

 farther from the ranch. Until late in the 



