284 



RECREATION. 



there till November 30. There were 4 

 lakes within 5 miles of our camp. We 

 built a log shanty 12 x 14 feet and covered 

 it with birch bark. Someone set fire to it 

 last spring and it is now a heap of ashes. 

 Deer are becoming more numerous there 

 every year. The men in the lumber camps 

 are the ones who slaughter the deer. They 

 kill them and sell them to the camps; but 

 the lumber camps are fast disappearing. 

 Where the timber once stood there are 

 large cherry thickets which are a great pro- 

 tection for the deer. Almost every even- 

 ing we rowed out on the lake to watch the 

 deer as they came down to water. One 

 family came every night, a buck, a doe 

 and 2 fawns. The fawns played like little 

 lambs. They jumped over each other and 

 ran up and down the shore. The old 

 ones were always on the lookout for dan- 

 ger, but they did not seem to notice us. 



Ruffed grouse and spruce hens were 

 plentiful, and there were any number of 

 rabbits and red squirrels. There were also 

 a few lynxes, bears and wolves. The lakes 

 were full of pickerel, bass and perch; there 

 were sturgeon and suckers in the river and 

 trout in the creeks. There are large tracts 

 of marsh where the deer find the best of 

 feed, and there are many low bush huckle- 

 berries and large cranberries on the plains. 

 Blackberries and red raspberries are also 

 plentiful. 



In the swamps the deer herd in winter. 

 We killed 4 deer in November. We could 

 have killed deer every day in summer, but 

 we are not law breakers nor game hogs. 

 I wish I had taken a camera with me. I 

 could have obtained some fine pictures. I am 

 going up again next summer. If anyone 

 wishes a good time he should go there. 

 Deer will always be numerous in School- 

 craft county. If anyone wishes informa- 

 tion about the country I shaU be glad to 

 give it to him. 



J. J. McCormick, 536 No. Main St., 

 Ann Arbor, Mich. 



GAME CONFISCATED IN OKLAHOMA. 



Some grand work has been done by J. 

 A. Gould, Territorial game warden of 

 Oklahoma, and his deputies during the 

 past year. Heretofore game shippers and 

 game law breakers have practically bade 

 defiance to all law; have done as they 

 pleased ; but they have recently had an ex- 

 perience that will most likely have a salu- 

 tary effect. If other Territories and States 

 had as active, conscientious wardens as 

 Oklahoma has the way of the transgressor 

 would indeed be hard, the illegal shipment 

 of game would soon cease, and the market 

 hunter disappear. December 18, 1902, 

 Warden Gould captured 29 barrels of game 

 being shipped through Enid on the C. R. 



I. & P. R. R. There were 13 dozen prairie 

 chickens, all the remainder being quails. 

 The entire shipment weighed 6,500 pounds 

 and was estimated to be worth over $2,000. 

 This game was shipped by a firm at 

 O'Keene, in Blaine county, O. T., and was 

 consigned to W. P. Kessler & Co., of St. 

 Louis, Mo. Yesterday J. M. Wheeler, 

 deputy warden for Garfield county, a good 

 man for the place, located at Enid, cap- 

 tured 8 barrels of quails in transit through 

 this city on the "Frisco"; also shipped from 

 O'Keene, and for a blind, billed to Cripple 

 Creek, Colorado, presumably by the same 

 firm that shipped the 29 barrels first cap- 

 tured. Then again, to-day, Warden Gould 

 captured 7 barrels of quails at Waukomis, 

 in this county, consigned to J. H. White 

 & Co., of Chicago. In view of these cap- 

 tures and confiscations, it is hardly likely 

 these game dealers will realize any profit 

 from their law breaking. Therehave been 

 no arrests made as yet, but the officers 

 know their men, and will finish the lesson 

 later. Long live Warden Gould and his 

 deputies ! May the cause of game protec- 

 tion and its greatest champion, Recreation, 

 continue to prosper. 



L. C. Elerick, Enid, Oklahoma. 



Gould and Wheeler should both have 

 good big pensions for life. — Editor. 



COLORADO TOO EASY ON HOGS. 

 I have done my best to protect the game 

 in this vicinity, yet it has been slaughtered 

 shamefully in this part of the country. 

 Deer and elk have been shot down and left 

 to rot in the hills. I have seen such work 

 year after year, and nothing has formerly 

 been done about it ; but I have put a stop 

 to a good deal of it lately. The country is 

 not properly protected and, despite the cry 

 of the chief warden of this county, the 

 slaughter will continue as long as the depu- 

 ties sent in here are afraid to get out into 

 the hills, where the slaughter is the worst. 

 This is the home of the big game of North 

 America, but unless the people take a differ- 

 ent view of the matter from what they have 

 at present it will not be long until there 

 will be no deer or elk in the State. We not 

 only have game hogs here, but we have fish 

 hogs, men who are too lazy to do a day's 

 work, but will take a pack train, go to the 

 lakes, bring home a train load of fish and 

 sell them. The citzens of Yampa protect 

 such men. There are a number here for 

 whom the name of game hog would be too 

 good. Every sportsman in Colorado should 

 try to put a stop to this work and pressure 

 should be brought to bear on the Colorado 

 officials to give better protection to this 

 part of the State. I saw many carcasses 

 lying in the hills last summer, shot merely 

 for the fun of seeing the deer fall. Still 



