oe eee , ~ 
FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 37 
Last November I went across the moun- 
tains into the deer country, in the interest 
of the American Museum of Natural His- 
tory. While there I learned of some things 
that will grieve you, as they did me. I 
was the guest of a man whom I believe to 
be perfectly reliable, and I am indebted to 
him and others for the information I give 
you below. 
There are a number of hide hunters in- 
habiting Jackson Co., Oregon. The prin- 
cipal ones are the following: Louis Mar- 
tin, Sam Geary, “ Cal” Winningham, the 
Pence brothers, George Wicks and a man 
by the name of Leboe. There are others 
but I did not learn their names. 
Now as to their work: Two years ago 
there were a number of elk on the head- 
waters of Rogue river. Those who had seen 
the bunch estimate that there were about 
40 or 50, when the slaughter, of which I 
shall speak, took place. Cal Winningham 
was out as usual hide hunting in the closed 
season, and in the deep snow he saw where 
the elk had passed. Going back to camp 
he got what cartridges he had—75—and a 
little grub, and started in pursuit. 
He probably followed them several days, 
shooting whenever he got a chance. At 
any rate he killed or crippled almost the 
entire bunch, only leaving the remnant 
when his 75 shots had been exhausted. 
What was left of the bunch took refuge in 
an impenetrable fastness in the heart of the 
mountains, where even these hide hunters 
‘dare not follow. 
Of the elk, this fellow got only a few 
hides, as he did not stop to skin them when 
they fell, but pushed on after the main herd, 
‘and many crept off to die where he did not 
‘care to follow up. So were destroyed the 
only elk in the Rogue river country. 
Deer are killed in the part of the country 
I speak of by the thousands, and at all sea- 
sons of the year. 
Sam Geary killed and marketed the hams 
of about 500 bucks and does, from the first 
of August to the first of November, the open 
season, when it is lawful in this state to do 
such things. Leboe did hardly as bad, but 
bad enough, as did also scores of others. 
- Half-breed Indians kill and market large 
numbers of deer and hides, though I am told 
they are not so destructive as are the white 
butchers. 
Louis Martin and the Pence boys went up 
into the mountains, on the Umpqua divide in 
June, ’97, where the does go to drop their 
fawns. They hunted here through the 
fawning season, and 2 men who happened to 
come on their camp, while the miscreants 
were away, counted 15 bales of doe hides 
‘and to make sure, they counted the hides 
in a bale and found too in it. Think for 
yourself. These fellows never saved a bit 
of this meat, for it was not good. 
Almost every blacktail doe gives birth to 
twin fawns; 1,500 does, 3,000 fawns, makes 
the total loss of that month’s hunt 4,500 
deer! ‘The does that were never found and 
died from their wounds, will easily give the 
fawn loss at 3,000. 
This was a year ago last fawning season, 
sO we must count at least 3,000 fawns for 
the crop that would have come in 1808, 
making the sum of 7,500 deer! Is it any 
wonder that the deer are becoming scarce; 
that a man may hunt sometimes for days 
without seeing a deer? It is a shame. 
And yet we have a game protector in 
this state. He resides in Portland. I wrote 
him of the state of affairs in this country. 
lf he did anything to stop it no one ever 
knew it, not even the hide hunters. I be- 
lieve he savs that the laws so conflict that 
it is hard to convict a man. Not so, if we 
had honest judges. I hope that at the com- 
ing term of the legislature some laws that 
will protect the game may be enacted, and 
provision for their enforcement be made. 
This slaughter of deer is going on at all 
times of the year, and the number that are 
killed in the Southwest quarter of Oregon 
every year, would be hard to estimate, as it 
would reach well up into the thousands. 
Probably 30,000 to 40,000 would be an 
estimate within bounds. 
Sam Geary and Louis Martin had a bet 
up once, as to who could kill the most deer 
in a month. Martin killed 128 and Geary 
124. 
Geary killed deer for parties from Med- 
ford at the rate of $1 each, agreeing that 
upon a certain day he would have 20 car- 
casses hung up in trees for the purchaser, 
and all fresh meat, which goes to show how 
many these fellows kill in a short time. 
An average buck brings the peddler from 
$8 to $12 when taken to any of the sur- 
rounding towns. 
I saw a wagon load of hams come into 
one of these towns in October; people 
flocked around to get a piece of venison, 
which sold at 10 cents a pound. To me 
the sight was disgusting, as blow-flies 
swarmed around and on the meat. In spite 
of this, and the fact that it had been hauled 
in wagons for miles, through the hot sun, 
with only a wagon sheet or piece of canvas 
covering it, it was all sold in a short time. 
One day’s hunt by one of these men and 
his 2 boys was termed a failure, as they 
“got only 8.” 
If they don’t make a regular slaughter, 
they are not satisfied, as they do not get 
enough from the hides to pay them for their 
trouble. One of these same people told me 
that he did not think it would pay them to 
hunt another season; deer were getting too 
scarce. 
Burton L. Cunningham. 

FISH AND GAME LAWS OF ONTARIO. 
A short time ago, there was a notice in 
the Montreal Star to the effect that the 

