4S0 



RECREATION. 



carry on the slaughter. The remedy for 

 this state of affairs is for the government 

 to license about 40 professional hunters 

 to go into the Park and kill off all carnivo- 

 rous wild beasts every winter and spring. 

 These men could report to the Superin- 

 tendent and be under his orders and direc- 

 tion. 



It is probable these men would engage in 

 such a service for the skins thus obtained 

 without further pay. They are just as much 

 concerned in game protection in the Park 

 as anybody. They make their living by 

 taking parties of amateurs into the moun- 

 tains to hunt. If the elk and deer are ex- 

 terminated their occupation will be gone, 

 for no man is permitted by law to sell 

 wild meat in Montana or Wyoming, and 

 there is, in fact, little or no wild meat sold 

 now. 



If the game in the Yellowstone Park 

 is really preserved it will furnish for many 

 generations excellent hunting in the moun- 

 tain area round about the Park by the 

 overflow of game during the open season 

 coming out beyond the Park limits. The 

 good hunting in Jackson's Hole will keep 

 good 50 years by reason of the overflow 

 from the Park preserves. But if the 

 wolves, bears, cougars and lynxes which 

 are now so carefully protected in their 

 wholesale slaughter in the Park are not 

 checked, there will be no big game there 

 in a few years. 



A LAW-BREAKER CONVERTED. 



Indianapolis, Ind. 

 Editor Recreation: 



General Lew Wallace, who lives at 

 Crawfordsville, recently acquired a small 

 tract of ground, consisting of some tim- 

 ber along a narrow ravine, with some good 

 springs in the ravine. He purposes to 

 place a dam at the lower end of the ravine, 

 make a fish pond and raise 2 or 3 kinds of 

 game fishes. He also purposes to enclose 

 the timber part with a wire netting and 

 watch the growth and habits of quails and 

 other game birds. He has a small steam 

 launch on the Kankakee, and goes there 

 often to fish and shoot ducks. 



We are beginning to enforce the game 

 laws in this State. Only recently several 

 game dealers were fined for having quails 

 in their possession out of season. One 

 case was bitterly contested before the 

 criminal court of this county. The defense 

 was that the law was unconstitutional be- 

 cause it interfered with interstate com- 

 merce. The game dealer had bought quails 

 in Chicago, had brought them here and 

 put them on the market. The court held, 

 however, that the defense was not a good 

 one and imposed a fine. 



We have a deputy game warden in this 

 State who is doing a great deal of good. 



He is a perfectly fearless fellow, and has 

 accomplished much with the small fund 

 at his disposal. He told me recently he 

 destroyed 2 seines, one 500 and the 

 other 600 feet long. He told me an in- 

 teresting experience he had one Sunday 

 last summer. He was driving along a 

 highway in the Northern part of the State, 

 some 200 miles from his home, when he 

 passed a farm house and noticed that the 

 farmer had a net strung up in his barn, 

 mending it. He jumped out of the buggy 

 and ran to the barn, but before he got 

 there the farmer closed the door and 

 would not let him in the barn. The dep- 

 uty told the farmer his name, business 

 and that he wanted the net. The farmer 

 sent his son to the house for a shot gun, 

 perhaps 2 guns, one for the son and one 

 for the farmer. The deputy argued with 

 them a long time, but to no avail. Final- 

 ly the deputy returned to the men in the 

 buggy and told them to drive 4 miles to 

 the office of a justice of the peace, for a 

 search warrant and a constable. He would 

 remain to watch the farmer and see that 

 he did not hide the net. Finally the war- 

 rant came, and with it 2 armed constables. 

 They surrounded the farmer and captured 

 the whole outfit, net and all. The farmer 

 was tried before a justice and fined. He 

 appealed to the circuit court. The case 

 was tried and the jury disagreed. It was 

 tried again before a jury with a verdict of 

 conviction. The whole business cost the 

 farmer $240, and he had to mortgage 40 

 acres of land to get the money. He be- 

 came one of the best friends the warden 

 has, and there are no more violations of 

 the law in that community. 



Some friends of mine have recently been 

 in the Kankakee marshes shooting ducks. 

 It is said that Sunday, March 24, there 

 were 3,000 Chicago hunters on the Kan- 

 kakee marshes. They were present in 

 droves everywhere, shooting at every- 

 thing and making enough racket to 

 frighten away all the game within a score 

 of miles. In Illinois license fee is required 

 for hunting. Here we have nothing of the 

 kind and are imposed on. Another ses- 

 sion of our Legislature will not pass with- 

 out an earnest effort being made to secure 

 relief from such imposition. 



Mr. Earle, the deputy game warden of 

 whom I have spoken, recently told me he 

 wanted to take up the question of pollu- 

 tion of streams and see if he couldn't stop 

 many of the abuses that are going on. 

 There are a great many strawboard mills 

 in Indiana which dump their refuse into 

 the streams, thereby killing thousands 

 of fish and preventing others from coming. 

 There is a mill about 20 miles above this 

 city, but they have been perpetually en- 

 joined from polluting the stream, and they 



