36 



RECREATION. 



THE PRESERVATION OF GAME. 



STANLEY C. MORGAN. 



[Extract from a paper read before the Boys' 

 Literary Society of the Waukesha, Wis., High 

 School. Master Morgan is but 15 years old. I 

 wish all boys felt as he does on this subject. — 

 Editor.] 



There can scarcely be named a State or 

 Territory that has not good game laws on 

 its statute books; but laws that are not 

 enforced are of no avail. Strict game laws 

 must be enforced, or the remaining game 

 will, like the buffalo and the Indian, soon 

 disappear from our forests and our moun- 

 tains. 



Fishing and hunting furnish the best 

 kinds of recreation and exhilarating ex- 

 ercise which benefit mind and body. If 

 we would have future generations enjoy 

 these sports and have these opportunities, 

 we must protect the game. It is not wrong 

 to take an animal's life for recreation. If it 

 is right to kill animals for food, it can not 

 be wrong to sacrifice them for a higher 

 purpose, as health of body and mind. 



The true sportsman is a student and 

 lover of nature. He kills his game in the 

 most humane way; no snares, traps or 

 poison. He makes every effort to secure 

 wounded beast or bird. He does not hunt 

 in the breeding or nesting season, when 

 young creatures would starve on account 

 of the death of parents. He never takes 

 more game than he can use, but always 

 leaves some for the next man. 



Game animals, game birds, song birds and 

 fishes are the life of the landscape. What 

 would the forests be without a deer, bear 

 or moose? What would the prairies, fields 

 and woodlands be without the game birds 

 and song birds? What would the lakes, 

 rivers and brooks be without a game fish? 



It would be a most lamentable thing 

 from a scientific point of view if future 

 generations should have no opportunity for 

 studying large and small mammals. 



The preservation of our song birds de- 

 pends largely on the protection of the game 

 birds; for as soon as the goose, duck, prai- 

 rie chicken, quail, etc., disappear, the robin, 

 meadow lark, thrush, blue bird, etc., will 

 become "game" and will soon follow. This 

 is so in Italy, where real game birds have 

 disappeared, and where the peasants kill 

 nightingales and skylarks by the thousands 

 as those birds migrate along the coast. 



Sportsmen in general advocate the propa- 

 gation of game birds by the State and fed- 

 eral governments, with a view to preserv- 

 ing them. We have national and State fish 

 hatcheries; why not national and State 

 game bird hatcheries? There is more reason 

 for the artificial propagation of game than 

 of fishes, because nature has in various ways 

 provided for the protection of fishes more 



liberally than she has for the protection of 

 game. 



It may soon be necessary for farmers, 

 who have more at stake in the preservation 

 of game than all others, to form county or 

 township organizations, and charge every 

 hunter who comes into their territory a fee 

 for the privilege of hunting. Then there 

 would be an inducement for the farmers to 

 raise and protect game. This plan has been 

 adopted in Germany, and game there is as 

 plentiful as it was 400 years ago. No per- 

 son has any right to take game which is 

 the property of the people and make mer- 

 chandise of it for his own profit. The sell- 

 ing of game will accomplish its complete 

 extermination if not stopped, and it could 

 be stopped within a few months if all the 

 States would do their duty and enforce 

 their laws. It is a well known fact that in 

 all the more thickly settled States our game 

 birds are decreasing each year; in some sec- 

 tions, as much as 50 per cent. 



At this rate it will be only a short time 

 before they will become extinct. This loss 

 would be enormous in its effects. Not only 

 to the sportsman and the interests he repre- 

 sents, but also to the farmer and those de- 

 pendent on agricultural products. The 

 number of insects which game birds de- 

 stroy is almost incredible. These insects 

 wage relentless war on crops and all kinds 

 of vegetation. 



The material value of our game is enor- 

 mous and should be a strong factor in 

 preserving it. Many people are annually 

 attracted to this State by the good hunt- 

 ing and fishing. They leave many thou- 

 sands of dollars here. Maine expends $30,- 

 000 annually for fish and game protection 

 and propagation. Her people receive over 

 $200,000 from the visitors who annually go 

 there for fishing and hunting. 



The real and effective protection of our 

 game must be built on the sympathetic 

 understanding that it was placed on earth 

 by a bountiful Creator to endure, and not to 

 be exterminated ; to delight the eye and 

 make this world a good and interesting 

 place for man to live in, as well as to fur- 

 nish him with a portion of his subsistence 

 and a means for healthful recreation. 



WAS ACQUAINTED WITH MOSE. 



I have read H. N. Beecher's "Life Story 

 of a Grizzly," in December, 1902, Recre- 

 ation and find the main points true, for I 

 hunted in Colorado from 1882 to 1896 and 

 I think I traveled farther after old Mose 

 than any man in that part of the Rockies. 

 Beecher credits me with killing old Mose's 

 father and brother, which I did. 



I began hunting Mose in '86. The first 

 night I stopped at Hodges' ranch on Cot- 

 tonwood, 12 miles from where! killed the 

 King of the Rockies. I told Mr. Hodges 



