FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



291 



hillside being steep, the deer slid about 150 

 yards below where he fell. Every one of 

 the 3 shots went through the animal's body 

 in a vital place. 



T. R. Gilden, Spangle, Wash. 



PREDICTS EXTERMINATION OF ELK. 



The past year was a good one for game, 

 ducks, geese and quails being numerous. 

 There are many chickens in the high hills. 

 Deer, elk and bear have suffered a great deal 

 during the past 2 years from the Thunder 

 mountain excitement, which has filled the 

 mountains with a swarm, of prospectors who 

 are not disposed to regard the game laws 

 when meat is scarce and a fat buck within 

 range. The last game law passed by the late 

 Legislature is good in all except 2 respects : 

 those which permit the selling of trout and 

 the killing of female elk. A grave error 

 was made in removing the sex restriction 

 on elk. This noble American deer is rapidly 

 approaching extermination, and unless im- 

 mediate steps are taken, another decade 

 will witness the destruction of the last herd. 

 Mountain sheep are also growing scarce, 

 though last autumn, while deer hunting in 

 the Deadwood country, I heard of a bunch 

 of 10 which had been driven down from 

 the high mountains by forest fires. 



J. H. Gipson, Caldwell, Idaho. 



TWO HUNTS FOR A LION. 



Last winter I had a line of traps on Hot 

 Spring creek. One morning I found that a 

 large mountain lion had got into one of my 

 No. 4 traps and had broken the chain and 

 escaped. There was not much snow in the 

 creek bottom, and it was difficult to trail 

 him, but I went home after my father and 

 together we put in the day trying to track 

 him. We made slow progress and when 

 night came we were only about 2 miles from 

 where we started ; but the lion was getting 

 on to higher ground, where there was more 

 snow, so it was less difficult to follow him. 

 However, as the trail seemed to be 2 or 3 

 days old, we became discouraged and gave 

 it up for the time. 



Four days later my father got Mart 

 Bright to go with him and about noon they 

 struck a fresh trail. As they had a good 

 dog, they soon had the lion up a tree, where 

 they shot him without any delay, strung him 

 on a pole and carried him out. 



Herbert W. Lord, Darby, Mont. 



GAME NOTES. 

 Polk township, principally old slashings 

 and windfalls, is grown up with blackber- 

 ries and wild cherries, through which it is 

 almost impossible for a man or dog to go. 

 Snow was about 8 inches deep, and we had 

 2 young fox hounds and a water spaniel 

 that had never been on a wildcat's trail 



when we hunted there last winter. The 

 first afternoon the dogs drove a wildcat 

 into the rocks. We set some traps we had 

 with us and returned to the farmhouse. 

 Next morning we found one cat in a trap 

 and killed it, and shot 2 more in the after- 

 noon. The last one weighed 53 pounds. 



In the county where I live grouse and 

 quails were formerly abundant, but every 

 fall hunters from Pittsburg come with dogs 

 and kill all the game. They come the first 

 of the season, and by the time local hunt- 

 ers can get out, all the grouse and quails are 

 killed. We would like to know how this 

 can be stopped. 



Jesse Snyder, Pierce, Pa. 



We see so much published concerning 

 the killing of game out of season by the 

 crews in lumber camps, that I should like 

 to call attention to a case, on the credit 

 side of the account. It is only of late that 

 moose have begun to return in any num- 

 bers to Southwestern New Brunswick. 

 Five years ago a moose track was an un- 

 common sight, where moose are now fairly 

 numerous. Last winter 9 yarded within 3 

 miles of a camp where there were 30 or 40 

 men, and though rifles were handy not a 

 moose was killed or even shot at. The 

 boys jumped them several times, "just to 

 see them run through the snow," as one of 

 them told me. During last summer I was 

 in the same country and saw a number of 

 moose ; bulls, cows, calves and yearlings. 

 Signs were numerous everywhere. The few 

 inhabitants there are seem to take an inter- 

 est in game protection. 



Gardner Cornell, Providence, R. I. 



In December Recreation Dr. S. B. Keith, 

 of Palmer, Mass., says game was never be- 

 fore so scarce in Massachusetts as it was 

 the past season. In Berkshire county birds 

 have not been so plentiful in 10 years as they 

 are this season. He gives the reason of 

 the scarcity as too many hunters and foxes, 

 and says that 2 years ago a man with one 

 fox terrier got 87 foxes. A good year for 

 foxes ! They must have thinned out terri- 

 bly, for the Springfield Republican told of 

 the annual hunt in Palmer, in which the 

 Doctor took part, and they only got 2 

 foxes. Perhaps they did not have the 

 fox terrier, or the Doctor may be holding 

 them back for the bounty. 



W. J. Cross, Deputy, Becket, Mass. 



Enclosed find clipping from our morning 

 paper: 



C. M. Mcintosh, a rancher, living about xo 

 miles East of Great Falls, was seriously injured 

 yesterday morning by the accidental discharge 

 of a gun which he was handling. In holding his 

 gun he rested it on the ground and held the muz- 

 zle in his left hand. In making some sudden 



