FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



467 



down into Arkansas, buy and ship him red 

 cedar fence posts, piling, etc., we could make 

 good money at it, I was overjoyed. I 

 simply said I would think of it; yet I took 

 a quiet look at my 3 barreled Daly, to find 

 it without a speck or a blemish. The barrels 

 were as bright as a mirror inside. Inside of 

 a month I was following the 3 blaze trail 

 through the Arkansas woods and contract- 

 ing cedar timber. 



Happy? Well, why should I not be? 

 The business seemed promising and what a 

 delightful combination of business and 

 pleasure! 



By the time the season opened I was at 

 old man Odow's, of whom I had bought 

 enough cedar to keep my force of 7 chop- 

 pers busy all winter. I put my teams to 

 hauling and had lots of time to devote to 

 hunting and trapping. 



Odow was a typical backwoodsman. He 

 took no stock in " that thar durned gun " of 

 mine, but was perfectly satisfied with his 

 long barreled heavy old powder and ball 

 rifle — with which he was a dead shot — and 

 put me to shame a good many times on 

 turkeys and heading squirrels, but fortune 

 favored me and raised my Daly so high in 

 his estimation that he offered to trade his 

 gun and his tame bear for it, all owing 

 to the shot I made on my last Arkansas 

 deer. 



The mule team was busy hauling to the 

 river, so the old man " allowed " we — he 

 and I — could walk " deown ter teown " and 

 get some groceries. We could " do the 

 11 mile and back afore dark" an we would 

 take the guns along " fur thar's a couple o' 

 deer usin' over on the Hatcher hog-back 

 hill." We started and sure enough as we 

 rounded the point of the " hog-back " a 

 buck and doe broke cover in the draw about 

 70 yards from us and were " cuttin sod " 

 lively through the woods, going quartering 

 away from us, the buck leading by about 60 

 or 80 feet. By the time I had set down the 

 bag the old man had drawn a bead and 

 pressed the trigger, the hammer fell but the 

 old rifle missed fire — a not uncommon oc- 

 currence — I found the sights on the buck 

 and at the crack of the gun the doe turned a 

 summersault. The old man looked at me 

 and said that was the " durnedest purtiest 

 shot " he ever " seed." I did not tell him 

 I shot at the buck and I do not fear his find- 

 ing it out even through the columns of Rec- 

 reation. 



A PLEA FOR GAME PRESERVES. 



P. B. PEABODY. 



I wish I could reach the sense of shame 

 in seme of our so-called sportsmen, here in 

 Minnesota. 



They are mostly wealthy men, go out 

 with trained dogs, guns of the finest make, 

 the strongest powder and the smallest pos- 

 sible souls. 



A party of 5, with 11 dogs and 5 gmi^. 

 came up a year ago to the sharp tail 

 grouse grounds, and, in 2 weeks, shipped 

 to Minneapolis, to be put on cold storage 

 for winter use, 600 grouse. The angels only 

 know how many useful marsh-hawks and 

 short-eared owls they murdered. 



Another incident which has come under 

 my notice, illustrating the crudeness of our 

 laws: 



North Dakota parties often sneak acr 

 the line and steal our Minnesota grouse and 

 deer. Last September one such party went 

 back leaving 300 grouse in one pile to rot. 



No wonder that the sharp-tails, even in 

 this magnificent habitat, are fast disappear- 

 ing. 



Wondering what could be done to save 

 them I have, at last, conceived the plan of 

 establishing, at suitable points, reserva- 

 tions, tracts which may be fenced with Page 

 fence, and patrolled by state officers, whose 

 duty it should be, not only to keep off, or 

 arrest all 2 footed hunters, but to trap or 

 shoot 4 footed skunks, coyotes and foxes. 



As a counter check on these regular 

 deputies, let the preserves be frequently vis- 

 ited by officers of the L. A. S. 



The fence, if 4 feet high, while not hin- 

 dering the movements of birds or deer, 

 would keep out coyotes, foxes and skunks, 

 and the deputies, if wisely chosen, and 

 properly mobilized, could easily protect the 

 game, while all well disposed sportsmen 

 would extend moral aid. Through the 

 natural overflow from such preserves, the 

 supply of game would be kept up. 



I saw, last winter, at a charming brook- 

 side spot, where the moraine divides the 

 bottoms of Red river from the Roseau 

 swamps, 2 seedy pot-hunters, with shoes 

 tied to their feet with thongs ; sneaks from 

 Illinois, who had been eking out a lazy 

 living all fall and winter, shooting and trap- 

 ping everything which would turn them a 

 cent. 



They shipped their catch to a commission 

 house in St. Paul — billing it as " old har- 

 ness;" not from this station, however. 

 Everything they shipped from here was 

 opened by the agent, to see if anything 

 contraband were hidden. 



The crying need of this country is for 

 uniform, intelligent laws, strict espionage 

 and that spirit of self-denial among sports- 

 men which distinguishes the gentleman 

 ffom the hog, and which Recreation is do- 

 ing so much to inculcate. 



THE DOCTOR'S FIRST BUCK. 



After much persuasion Dr. Farmer, of 

 Endicott. Wash., succeeded in getting me 

 to throw farm cares aside and guide him to 

 one of my ideal hunting grounds. I had 

 been out with him the year before and he 

 got a big black tail doe, but as he wanted 

 a head to mount the hunt wasn't entirely 

 satisfactory, so on the 15th of October, 'gS, 



