FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



127 



I found a few men at Pagosa Springs 

 who had tried .30-30 rifles, but had dis- 

 carded them. They prefer the .40-82, .45- 

 70 and .50-110 repeaters. Sig. Brown, who 

 has killed 42 bears in that neighborhood, 

 17 in one season, uses a .50-110 Winches- 

 ter. A gentleman who went with us has 

 killed 11 bears and over 100 deer in the 

 last 15 years. He uses a .45-70. 



The trout fishing was not what it has 

 been in past years, owing to streams be- 

 ing overfished. It is said, also, that after 

 heavy forest fires the ashes wash into the 

 streams and kill the fish. Do you believe 

 that? 



L. E. Nelson. 



PROHIBIT SPRING SHOOTING. 



Yours of recent date regarding the Lacey 

 bill duly received, and I congratulate you 

 and all the League members, most heartily, 

 on the grand work that has been so suc- 

 cessfully accomplished. 



I send herewith my contribution to the 

 watch fund for the hero of the United 

 States ana Canada — the champion of the 

 birds and the wild animals. I know this 

 grand old man will always have a warm 

 place in his heart for the L. A. S. 



Now Mr. President, could not a law be 

 enacted in the same way to suppress spring 

 shooting of migratory waterfowl, and of 

 all migatory game birds? These are not 

 the property of any one State, and we 

 should have a uniform law to stamp out 

 this crime of killing ducks and snipe in 

 the spring when they are mating, and when 

 the embryo of the brood is to be found in 

 every female bird. I trust the League will 

 do all in its power to stop this curse of 

 game protection. 



A. J. Mull, Muscatine, la. 



ANSWER. 



The question of open and close seasons 

 on game is one which the States them- 

 selves must regulate. This is not a sub- 

 ject for Congressional legislation. The 

 Supreme Court, has decided several times 

 that game is the property of the States in 

 which it is found, and that the United 

 States can exercise no control over it. 



The Lacey law simply aims to aid the 

 States in enforcing their local laws, what- 

 ever they may be ; to compel people in other 

 States to respect the open and close sea- 

 sons or the non-shipping regulations of 

 your State, for instance. 



I should be mighty glad to see all the 

 States in the Union pass laws to prohibit 

 spring shooting, and I trust all of them 

 will do so in the near future. The senti- 

 ment in favor of game protection is grow- 

 ing rapidly, and it requires only the con- 

 certed action of all real friends of game 

 protection to bring about, in a few years, 

 such laws as we need. — Editor. 



CAMP INDOLENT. 



Des Moines, la. 



Editor Recreation: Have just returned 

 from a 2 weeks' trip with F. L. Knight, 

 A. G. Hammer and his son, Lester. On 

 Tuesday, July 11, Knight and I hitched 

 our buggy horses to a lumber wagon load- 

 ed with camp duffle and grub, and drove 

 12 miles up the Des Moines river. We 

 camped in a fine black walnut grove, about 

 30 feet from the river. We set 2 lines and 

 caught 2 channel catfish of about 2 pounds 

 each, for supper; got the tent up and all 

 snug before dark. 



The next day Mr. Hammer and Lester 

 drove in, and our party was complete. The 

 kid fished faithfully, in spite of a blazing 

 July sun, and brought in several messes of 

 black bass and wall-eyed pike. The old 

 chaps sat in the shade, smoked and loafed 

 through the heat of the day. We found 

 that by going out early in the morning we 

 could get plenty of small frogs for bait. 

 A few lines., set in the river in the shade 

 of the willows near camp, kept us supplied 

 with all the fish we could use. They were 

 mostly catfish, weighing 1 to 5 pounds. 



We have camped along the Des Moines 

 river each summer for several years with 

 indifferent success, so far as fishing was 

 concerned, until this year. Our energetic 

 Fish Commissioner, Geo. E. Delevan, last 

 fall took from the sloughs and bayous 

 along the Iowa shore of the Mississippi 

 several carloads of fish. They were dis- 

 tributed in our rivers and lakes, and one 

 carload was put in the Des Moines, near 

 this city. All of these fish would have 

 been frozen in the shallow water from 

 which they were taken. Wall-eyed pike 

 and bass had become almost extinct in 

 this stream. 



B. H. Pray. 



FALL MILLINERY. 

 I inclose you a clipping from the Cincin- 

 nati Commercial Tribune. It does not seem 

 to me this writer's deductions are correct. 

 According to my observation for several 

 years past it is only in the spring and sum- 

 mer, the seasons of flowers, that birds and 

 feathers are not used on hats. In the fall 

 and winter the bird corpses reappear as 

 trimmings. 



W. O. Davie, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

 The clipping referred to is as follows : 



On Mondayfollowing Easter Sunday the New York 

 correspondent of the Philadelphia Ledger wrote as 

 follows: 



At last it would seem that fashion has begun to yield 

 to the crusade against the slaughter of birds for the 

 ornamentation of women's hats. Yesterday it was 

 observed in the throng of Easter promenaders that 

 birds and feathers were generally absent from the 

 headgear of women. Good ! 



ANSWER. 



Yes, the writer of the foregoing is in 

 error. The absence of birds from Easter 



