454 



RECREATION 



neighbors and old friends who have long made 

 a profit in this sort of thing. 



In North Carolina there is no law forbidding 

 shooting for market and shipping to market; 

 and it is well-known that the market shooting 

 influence is so strong that the Audubon Society 

 of that State cannot secure the passage of any 

 laws to stop this sort of extermination. The 

 people are determined to get what money they 

 can out of the birds during the few years they 

 will last and let posterity take care of itself. 

 In fact, the laws of Currituck Sound favor the 

 market duck shooter and restrict the sports- 

 men. 



I said last year that nothing short of an 

 amendment to the Constitution, giving Congress 

 the power to pass legislation for the protection 

 of game, will save the game of this country, 

 especially migratory birds, like the ducks. 

 Maine, no doubt, has succeeded in increasing 

 the number of its deer and reaping a rich har- 

 vest in money return. But although it has been 

 proved over and over again by figures that game 

 preservation is far more profitable than game 

 extermination, the large majority of States in the 

 Union will never look at it in that light in our 

 time, and after that it will be too late. Most of 

 them are unable to preserve their quail; and a 

 dozen or fifteen would have to pass uniform 

 laws and have, what is impossible, uniform en- 

 forcement of them in order to have any sub- 

 stantial effect on the rapidly lessening supply 

 of wild fowl. 



But the Government at Washington, if given 

 authority by the Constitution, could pass a law 

 which would apply to the whole Union and be 

 enforced uniformly, as the internal revenue 

 laws are enforced, by marshals and detectives, 

 who know no fear or favor in county or State 

 politics, or in neighborhoods. Under such a 

 system, the Government could stop all duck 

 shooting in the United States for a period of two 

 or three years, which would vastly increase the 

 wild fowl. After that, with market shooting 

 and night shooting stopped, a closed year once 

 in every three would keep the game increasing 

 until in time they would be as numerous as they 

 were sixty years ago, and then market shooting 

 might be allowed again, under certain restric- 

 tions. 



There was an attempt made to pass an act 

 of Congress putting migratory birds under the 

 care of the Department of Agriculture, but the 

 department in that case could merely have given 

 good advice to the States or to individuals. 

 It would have had no power to enforce a law 

 and fine and imprison people for breaking the 

 law. Every lawyer and judge knows that an 

 act of Congress forbidding night shooting, de- 

 claring a close year or making any other regula- 



tion about game in Chesapeake Bay, say, or 

 Currituck Sound or anywhere except in the 

 District of Columbia, or some national park, 

 would be unconstitutional and void and the 

 first man and every man arrested under it would 

 be discharged by the courts. 



There is no use in fooling away time with 

 half-way measures. Nothing but an amendment 

 to the Constitution can give Congress the power 

 to save the birds. Nothing but the full govern- 

 mental power of fine and imprisonment without 

 fear or favor, nothing but rigid enforcement, 

 as the revenue and tariff acts are enforced, by 

 the methodical and systematic action of numer- 

 ous officials, backed by the wealth and power 

 of the National Government, can accomplish 

 any satisfactory result. Anything short of that 

 is a mere waste of words and energy. 



To amend the Constitution is a serious under- 

 taking. But fifteen amendments have been added 

 to it; and a sixteenth which will save for our 

 people the charms and delights of health-giving 

 nature will be worth all it costs. The sports- 

 men, the naturalists, the nature lovers, the health 

 seekers and the good citizens must be organized 

 in one great association or in a number of asso- 

 ciations to be federalized for united effort. 



Sydney G. Fisher. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



San Jacinto Deer 



Editor Recreation: 



The article in March Recreation, "The 

 Game of California," by Charles W. Hardman, 

 is very good with one exception. Mr. Hard- 

 man says there are no mule deer in California. 

 If not, will he kindly tell us what those deer are 

 on the Colorado Desert just east of the San 

 Jacinto Mountains? They have exactly the 

 same appearance of the mule deer of Montana, 

 Wyoming and Colorado and are very much 

 different than the blacktail of the Coast Range. 

 I have hunted in nearly half of the counties of 

 California and have yet to find a better place 

 for all-around hunting than in San Diego 

 County. If any reader of Recreation wants 

 to find an abundance of quail, rabbits, deer, 

 bear, cougar, wild cats and trout, let him write 

 to Eric Hindorff, Fallbrook, San Diego County, 

 California. Last fall he and I went about 

 twenty miles northwest of there to San Mateo 

 Creek and killed our four bucks and then 

 devoted our time to bear and cougar. In ten 

 days we killed one bear and four cougar with- 

 out going over five miles from camp. We saw 

 altogether seventeen deer. This region is only 

 a few miles from the coast, so it is not nearly so 

 hot as in some regions in California, and there 

 is also much less poison oak, which is a terror to 

 many hunters. It is well-watered, springs 



