RECREATION. 



273 



•creek, on the Gros Ventre river, and remain there 

 until October 15th. 



All our Rocky Mountain states have stringent 

 game laws, and you can easily imagine how 

 keenly we feel the injustice of allowing those red 

 brutes to wander unmolested over the country 

 and exterminate our game. Who can blame the 

 whites for occasionally breaking the game laws, 

 when they know that it is only a question of 

 a short time when the Indians will have left no 

 game for our laws to protect. 



The Secretary of the Interior writes you that 

 the Indians are not alone to be blamed for the 

 destruction of our game. They are responsible 

 for at least nine-tenths of all the game that is 

 killed each summer and fall in the Teton moun- 

 tains and the mountains just south of the Park. 



Mr. Editor, you have a wide experience in 

 hunting in the Rockies, and you know that only 

 in rare cases do white men kill females, of any of 

 our large game. They go for big heads, and 

 seldom shoot a female, unless absolutely neces- 

 sary to provide meat for camp. Not so with the 

 Indians. They want the hides for buckskin, 

 and the females and young are their special vic- 

 tims, as they prefer the lighter hides and as it is 

 so much easier to find and kill females than males. 



We would like to know who gets the provi- 

 sions, groceries and clothing the government 

 furnishes for these Indians, while hundreds of 

 them are away from their reservations, for 

 months at a time, hunting in the mountains. It 

 is generally believed here that the answer to 

 this might explain why they so readily obtain 

 these permits and leaves of absence. 



R. F. Cooke. 



Editor Recreation : 



Marysville, Wyo. 



Editor Recreation 



Dawson, N. D. 



Mr. S. S. Lyon, of Fargo, N. D., was with 

 me last fall, and in four days we killed over 600 

 ducks on the Lake Chase pass.* The first day 

 out we had only about four hours shooting and 

 got 297 ducks. Mr. Lyon is one of the best shots 

 in the state and he finds that shooting on this 

 pass is the hardest he ever had, for the birds come 

 fast and on one side they cannot be seen until 

 within about 80 feet of the shooter, and when 

 only 10 to 15 feet high. You know about how 

 fast a duck can fly, and if you can make a double 

 on that kind of shooting you may call yourself a 

 good shot. 



About a week after Mr. Lyon left, Mr. and 

 Mrs. H. B. Claflin, of New York, went out with 

 me to the same place, and I was astonished to see 

 Mrs. Claflin shoot. She made some of the best 

 doubles I ever saw, and could put to shame some 

 of the best shots in the country. A good many 

 ladies come here to shoot, and most of them will 

 keep a man looking for a stone or some large 

 stump to get behind, when they see the birds 

 coming. They get to pointing the gun wild, and 

 the chances are that the gun is toward you most 

 of the time ; but Mrs. Claflin handles her gun in 

 a way that will make a man feel perfectly safe in 

 her neighborhood. 



The Lake Chase pass is reached via the North- 

 ern Pacific railway, to Dawson. 



[*There should be a law in North Dakota, and in all 

 the other states, for that matter, that would send a 

 man to State's prison for about a year, for killing that- 

 many ducks in four days. — Editor.] 



John and George Wilson, neighbors of mine, 

 while hunting, saw a grizzly bear and her cub 

 run into a bunch of willows, and sent their dog 

 in after them. The old bear chased the dog out. 

 The boys shot at it, one of them breaking its 

 lower jaw, but still it came on after the dog. He 

 went straight for John and ran between his legs, 

 just as the bear made a grab for him. The bear's 

 tusks struck John on the leg, by mistake. If its 

 jaw had not been broken it might have been a 

 serious bite. The bear still chased the dog, till 

 the men succeeded in killing it. The cub got 

 away. 



We have had some cold weather, but a light 

 snow fall so far. Elk have not made their ap- 

 pearance in the valley in any great numbers yet, 

 but in the foot hills, bordering the valley, they 

 have run in great droves, one bunch of 3,000 

 having been reported. The indications now are 

 the game here will winter usually well. We 

 elected a justice and constable this fall. Next 

 summer we shall make an effort to keep the 

 Indians out of here. S. N. Leek, 



Editor Recreation 



Baltimore, Md. 



My son, who is 12 years old, has done some 

 remarkable shooting with a 44-gauge, single-bar- 

 rel Davenport shot-gun. He kills squirrels in 

 the tops of the tallest trees, and ducks at good 

 ranges. He killed two mallards a few days ago, 

 one of which dropped dead at a measured dis- 

 tance of 46 yards, and the other at 37 yards from 

 his blind. He has broken 18 out of 20 clay 

 pigeons with this gun at 18 yards rise. I doubt 

 if there is another boy in the country who can 

 show as good a record, made with any high- 

 priced gun. A. G. Wells. 



Haines Falls, N. Y. 

 Editor Recreation : 



Have been very busy hunting during the past 

 few weeks. Two feet of snow now on the 

 Catskills. Foxes are so plenty that a bounty of 

 $1.00, each is offered for scalps. The varmints 

 are destroying the ruffed grouse and hares, and 

 it is almost impossible to keep poultry. 



John W. Rusk. 



Editor Recreation : 



The winter range of the large game, in Jack- 

 son's Hole and the Green River countries, is 

 being overstocked with sheep, and a large por- 

 tion of the game is likely to starve, should the 

 winter be a hard one. Ira Dodge. 



Charles A. Alley, Walter Hale, Charles 

 Hodgdon and William Potter, of Lynn ; B. F. 

 Robinson and Charles Collins, of Saugus, and 

 William Peabody, of Salem, Mass., hunted near 

 New Market Lake, Maine, last fall. They killed 

 16 deer and a moose. 



Caribou are plentiful near Lower Caledonia, 

 N. S. Eight or ten were killed in that vicinity 

 last fall, and a number of others seen. Two are 

 all the law allows one man to take. 



