PROM THE GAME FIELDS, 



241 



man, who enjoys the sport of shooting, and 

 who kills a dozen or 20 birds in a day, to 

 dispose of them; but I do object, most 

 emphatically, to allowing a lot of brutal 

 butchers to follow the wild fowl and other 

 game birds from the British" line to the 

 Gulf of Mexico, killing all they can of 

 them every day and shipping them to the 

 market. This is the kind of market hunter 

 that should be stopped. 



A Philadelphia paper recently published 

 an interview with a St. Louis game dealer, 

 who says he employs a large number of 

 professional hunters to meet the ducks and 

 geese when they cross the Canadian bound- 

 ary and follow them clear into Old Mexico, 

 shipping the birds to this dealer day after 

 day. A great deal of this shooting is done 

 in States that have laws prohibiting the ex- 

 port of game beyond their limits ; but these 

 laws are evaded by this army of extermina- 

 tors. The birds are packed into barrels 

 and boxes, marked poultry, mutton, or 

 some other false name, and smuggled out of 

 these States in open violation of law. 

 There are over 300 men on Carrituck 

 Sound, N. C, who make their entire living 

 by shooting ducks for the market. I was 

 down there in November last, and the 

 steamer on which I came up carried 35 bar- 

 rels and boxes of ducks and geese, all con- 

 signed to New York game dealers. 



On a certain day last year 17 barrels of 

 ducks were shipped from Norfolk, Va., on 

 one train, to New York game dealers. The 

 men who do this slaughtering should be 

 stopped by law. 



Nearly every one of the market hunters 

 referred to above, use pump guns. Why? 

 Because they can kill more birds with 

 them than they can with double-bar- 

 rel guns. Many of these men did use 

 swivel guns, mounted on the bow of a 

 boat, loaded with a handful of powder and 

 a handful of large shot. Most of this class 

 of slaughter has been broken up by legal 

 methods ; but some of these same huriters 

 still use these guns clandestinely. I was 

 told by men who live on Carrituck Sound 

 that men frequently go out at night, with 

 these big swivel guns, with jacklights on 

 their boats ; that they scttll up within 

 30 or 40 yards of a flock of ducks, 

 geese or swans that are quietly resting for 

 the night, and turn their murderous cannons 

 loose on them, sometimes killing as high as 

 30 or 40 birds at a single shot. These are 

 a few of the reasons why the pump gun 

 should be prohibited by law, just as the 

 swivel gun is now prohibited. — Editor. 



As we understand the current interpre- 

 tation of international law, the seizure of 

 a vessel on the high seas is a mistake or 

 an act of piracy according to the size, of 

 the navy of the victimized nation. — The 

 Washington Post. 



AN APPEAL TO THE ELKS. 

 Mr. Joseph T. Fanning, G. E. R., 



Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, 

 Indianapolis, Ind. 

 Dear Sir : 



Acting on the suggestion in your letter 

 of June 25th, I enclose herewith copy of a 

 resolution which I should like to have in- 

 troduced for consideration in your annual 

 meeting. You may not be aware of the 

 fact that, as stated in this resolution, the 

 elk is threatened with speedy extermina- 

 tion in this country and can only be saved 

 from the fate that befell the buffalo a few- 

 years ago, by prompt and vigorous action 

 on the part of the members of your order, 

 with the aid of the sportsmen and nature 

 lovers of this country in general. 



The only considerable herd of elk re- 

 maining on the continent is that which in- 

 habits mainly the Yellowstone National 

 Park. Small bodies of these elk cross the 

 park boundary into the Jackson's Hole coun- 

 try every fall, and being semi-domesticated, 

 from their frequent contact with people in 

 the park, are comparatively tame. They, 

 therefore, fall an easy prey to thoughtless 1 

 and reckless hunters, who visit or who 

 live in and about the Jackson's Hole coun- 

 try. 



As president of this League and as edi- 

 tor of Recreation, I have been for years 

 laboring with the sportsmen, ranchmen and 

 all people who carry guns in the West to 

 quit the indiscriminate killing of elk and 

 to give these animals a chance to exist 

 permanently. I have all these years been 

 advocating the passage and enforcement of 

 rigid laws for the protection of the elk and 

 the providing by law for heavy licenses for 

 non-resident hunters, in order to save these 

 animals. With the aid of many other 

 thoughtful men, I have been successful in 

 this work in a marked degree. Still the de- 

 struction has gone entirely too far. You 

 doubtless know that a few years ago it was 

 possible to see bands of 100 to 500 elk al- 

 most anywhere in Northwest Colorado, or 

 throughout the mountainous portions of 

 Wyoming and Montana. From the best in- 

 formation obtainable, I am convinced that 

 there are to-day not more than 50 elk 

 remaining in Colorado or Montana and 

 practically none in Wyoming, outside of 

 the Yellowstone Park herd, portions of 

 which occasionally range over into the 

 Jackson's Hole Country. 



These animals were once abundant in the 

 Olympic mountains in Washington, but it 

 is entirely conservative to say there are not 

 100 remaining in that region to-day. 



You may not be aware of the extent to 

 which elk have been killed for the teeth 

 alone. A game warden patroling the Olym- 

 pic country last fall found the carcasses 

 of 11 elk in one place and 15 in another 



