FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



- 277 



and over us — the ruddy-ducks flying very 

 low, and as quickly as any teal ever dew. 



We are fair shots; some of us excellent 

 shots. We have about gut the lake in shape- 

 now to furnish good blind shooting. \\ e 

 came in last night, from one day's shooting, 

 bringing 33S buds. Our highest score for 

 any one day was 906. Another day we se- 

 cured 849 and another day 597. The first 

 day's shoot of all was 502. The game is all 

 saved, picked and put in cold storage and 

 will be supplied to our guests this winter. 



Few people in this country consider the 

 ruddy-ducks worth killing, and I was of that 

 opinion when living East; but these have 

 proven so fat and juicy, that the canvas- 

 backs we killed on the lake, while fully up 

 to the average, were not in my estimation 

 equal to the ruddy-ducks. 



We killed almost every variety of ducks 

 — the canvas-back, redhead, sprigtail, gad- 

 wall, widgeon, spoonbill, ruddy, black- 

 jack, different kinds of teal, butterball and 

 others. 



Our quail shooting, too, in this vicinity, 

 is the finest in the world. If you have never 

 killed California quail in their native heath, 

 which is among the cactus, you do not 

 know what difficult birds they are to hit. 

 I remember Mr. Ira Paine, at the zenith 

 of his skill, trying them, and failing to bag 

 the first 9 birds he shot at. After that " he 

 got on to their curves " and killed them 

 without trouble. E. S. Babcock. 



It is a great pity that business men like 

 you should have lived to the opening of the 

 20th century without learning that such kill- 

 ing as you recount is not sport but simply 

 cold blooded slaughter. It is condemned 

 and reprobated by every decent sportsman 

 in the land. In reproving and exposing 

 such work as yours I am simply voicing the 

 sentiment of all the best men in the craft. 



The birds you killed did not belong to 

 you because they had stopped to rest and 

 feed on your property. They are migratory 

 fowl and belong to all the people of your 

 state. Have you no regard for the rights 

 of the other i.oco.oco in your state? 



You confess to the killing of 3.192 ducks 

 in 5 days. Suppose instead you had killed 

 say 192. which would have been enough for 

 any 5 decent men to kill, and have left the 

 others to breed. Suppose each of them had 

 '1. next summer, -ay 5 young, on an 

 average. That would have meant a flight 

 ( f 1 5. coo ducks next fall that can never 

 come because of your slaughter. Think 

 what you have robbed your brother sports- 

 men of. Think what you have robbed the 

 whole country of. Think what you have 

 robbed nature of! 



I trust you and your friends may never 

 again be guilty of such a piece of slaughter 

 as this. — Editor. 



A DISGRACEFUL AND DISGRACED LOT OF 



BUTCHERS. 



The Milwaukee "Sentinel" published, in 

 its issue of January 22d, a picture of 16 deer 

 hanging up and 6 men standing in front of 

 them, gazing at the camera and seeming to 

 say to the world in boastful and grandilo- 

 quent terms, '* We slaughtered 'em! " Ac- 

 companying the picture is a letter from the 

 Hon. John W. Thomas, a member of the 

 Wisconsin Legislature from Chippewa 

 county, in which he takes these deer butch- 

 ers to task in strong terms. He says that 

 in 17 days these 6 men killed 35 deer. At 

 least 20 copies of this issue of the " Sen- 

 tinel " have been sent me, by as many differ- 

 ent readers of Recreation, requesting me 

 to roast these game butchers. 



One of my friends, Mr. T. W. Borum, of 

 Barron, Wis., encloses, with the clipping, 

 a copy of a letter he wrote the editor of the 

 " Sentinel," in which he says: 



Your illustration entitled " 1898, One 

 Week's Hunting on the Jump," shows what 

 some people with bristles on their backs 

 are capable of doing when turned loose. 

 Any party of 6 men who will in 17 days 

 slaughter 35 deer certainly invite the hearty 

 contempt of all true sportsmen. The 

 wholesale slaughter of game in Wisconsin 

 does not end with the killing of deer. 

 There are a lot of " pot hunters " who 

 make it their business each season to 

 slaughter and market from 400 to 500 chick- 

 ens and ruffed grouse. It is reported that 

 no less than 3.000 of these latter were 

 shipped from Rice lake last season, and 

 2,000 from Haugen. One man says he and 

 his partner shot and sent to market 1,200. 

 There is another class of would-be sports- 

 men who visit Wisconsin lakes and trout 

 streams and bend all their energies in an 

 attempt to make " records " of the number 

 of bass and trout caught. I remember a 

 party oi" who camped a week last summer 

 near Minocqua, and averaged about 1.000 

 pounds of bass and pike a day. What use 

 can a party of 6 men make of such a catch? 

 Personally I favor a law prohibiting the 

 sale of game and game fishes; but if we 

 cannot have that, we want the legislature 

 to at least give us a law. and to provide 

 for its enforcement, that will put a reason- 

 able limit on the kill of game and the catch 

 of game fishes. Unless we can have some- 

 thing of this nature, and have it soon, game 

 and game fishes will soon be as scarce in 

 Wisconsin as the buffalo are on the Western 

 plains. 



It is gratifying indeed to know that so 

 many of the sportsmen of to-day feel out- 

 raged by such exhibitions of swinishness, 

 shown in the picture referred to. If 

 all men who arc thus indignant at such 

 treatment by the daily papers would write 

 the editors thereof, expressing their senti- 



