34 



RECREATION. 



trip. Only 2 deer were killed, and what 

 we went through will live in all our memo- 

 ries as proof of our powers of endurance. 

 We shall not forget the day we got up at 

 3 o'clock in the morning, got our breakfast 

 out of the way and had camp cleaned up 

 by the first flush of dawn ; then shouldered 

 our rifles, took a day's ration each, and 

 tramped over -mountains and through 

 swamps and marshes till dark, with not a 

 drop of blood drawn by any of us that 

 whole day. The next morning we were up 

 and off again as soon as we could see to 

 travel. By consummate skill and the pa- 

 tience of a Piute Indian, Lute snaked him- 

 self over the top of a hill to get a view 

 over an open, beyond, when a lusty old 

 buck mistook his cunning and, with all his 

 tacking and maneuvering, got a 38 in the 

 short ribs. This is the kind of hunting 

 that makes picnic hunters want November 

 shooting abolished, to be replaced with 

 warm weather shooting, when they can 

 step down into a boat 10 rods from camp, 

 have a guide paddle them downstream 

 till they can shoot some unsuspecting doe 

 with an unweaned fawn, and get her into 

 camp without even the trouble of toting 

 her. 



ABOUT ARKANSAS GAME LAWS. 



I wish to address particularly, through 

 Recreation, those gentlemen sportsmen of 

 Arkansas who are really interested in the 

 protection of game. The game laws of 

 that State are so arranged as to license the 

 professional market hunter and trapper, but 

 they do not protect nor preserve game; nor 

 do they allow the true sportsman the liberty 

 to which he is entitled. For instance, if a 

 man goes there for a day's recreation and 

 sport, even if he lives only a few miles 

 away in an adjoining State, he is subject 

 to arrest and a heavy fine. That type of 

 man is probably one who would wish to 

 see game protected, and who would not 

 under any consideration molest game out 

 of season, or perpetrate any wanton slaugh- 

 ter; while the professional market hunter 

 can move to the State during the hunting 

 season only, if he so choose, and of course 

 the more he hunts and the more he kills, 

 the greater is his profit.. The law which 

 prohibits non-residents of Arkansas from 

 going there to hunt and recreate, does not 

 catch the class of people against whom it 

 was aimed. It simply gives the cheap 

 and unprincipled deputy sheriff a chance 

 for graft on a class of men who are able 

 to pay a fine and who, when caught, have 

 to pay, in order to get back to their busi- 

 ness and because they have not the time 

 to spare to fight the case. Such a sports- 

 man could, in nearly all cases, defeat the 

 snap judgment passed on him by the mag- 

 istrate, who probably is in league with the 



deputy, but his business demands that he 

 pay the fine and return at once; while the 

 professional who lives there all the time 

 and the professional who has only moved 

 there for the hunting season and claims 

 to be a full fledged citizen of the State, and 

 who destroys more game in one season 

 than the gentleman sportsman would in 

 many, is allowed to go on slaughtering for 

 money, unmolested. I do not say what the 

 remedy is, but I should like to see the 

 following suggestion and figures put to the 

 Legislature by the good people of Arkansas 

 who are interested in protecting their 

 bountiful game supply, before it is too late. 



Make it a misdemeanor for anyone to 

 sell game at all, and limit the catch and 

 kill. It is with the sportsmen and sports- 

 men's journals to protect game. The pro- 

 fessional hunter or trapper will never do it 

 until the last turkey, prairie chicken, duck, 

 deer, squirrel, rabbit, fish and furred animal 

 is gone. I submit the following figures as 

 a limit for one man, and if they were a law 

 no one but a game hog would violate them : 

 3 deer in one season ; 5 turkeys in one 

 season; 15 ducks in one day; 25 squirrels 

 in one day; 15 prairie chickens in one day; 

 25 fish in one day; 10 rabbits in one day. 



These are ample, though they are often 

 doubled by people who call themselves 

 gentlemen sportsmen. There are plenty of 

 real sportsmen in Arkansas and I should 

 like to hear from some of them in regard 

 to this, for this is a true outline of the 

 conditions in that State. 



Pax, Memphis, Tenn. 



TOWNSEND-BARBER CO. EXPLAINS. 



Editor Recreation : 



We have noticed the item published on 

 pages 282-3 of the October, 1902, number of 

 Recreation, entitled "Killed too Many 

 Sheep," in which appears a letter from R. 

 J. Boyd and j*o.ur answer thereto. We take 

 exception to your criticism of Mr. Boyd's 

 action while in our employ on the trip when 

 we secured 8 sheep in February last. Those 

 sheep were specially secured to fill orders 

 from the leading museums. Six of those 

 same sheep are now in the American 

 Museum of Natural History, in New York, 

 and one of the others, with further speci- 

 mens, is in another Eastern museum. 



The Mexican mountain sheep belongs to 

 the species recently described by Dr. C. H. 

 Merriam, of Washington, as Ovis mc.vi- 

 canus. Until last winter the only specimens 

 of this species in museums were the 

 type specimens from which the species 

 was described, in Washington. It was 

 therefore desirable, not only from the 

 standpoint of the naturalists and museums 

 concerned, but from the standpoint of the 

 general public for whose education these 

 museums exist, that specimens should be 



