258 



'RECREATION 



Trapper Peak, the highest mountain in Idaho, keeps 

 sentinel over this, the wildest region of the great 

 northwest. Almost inaccessible canons, glacial 

 basins and perpendicular precipices are to be found, 

 and well excite the admiration of the sightseer. 



The Bitter Root reserve has a width of about 

 sixty miles east and west, and is about seventy-five 

 miles north and south. It includes within its 

 borders Elk City, Buffalo Hump, Dixie, Newsome 

 and Syringa. The boundaries which Supervisor 

 Day proposes for the game preserve would exclude 

 all of these places. 



PROPOSED BOUNDARIES. 



He proposes to make the game preserve begin at 

 Lolo Pass, which is the northeast corner of the 

 forest reserve; then follow southwest along the 

 Lochsa River to the junction with the Selway 

 River; thence southeast along the Selway to Meadow 

 Creek ; south on Meadow Creek to the headwaters 

 of Big Mallard Creek; south along Big Mallard 

 Creek to the Salmon River; thence east and south- 

 east on the Salmon to the state line, and north 

 along the state line to the place of beginning. This 

 would take a little over half of the entire forest 

 reserve. 



It is estimated that within this area are about 

 ioo moose, 600 elk, many sheep along the rivers, 

 herds of goat among the crags, several colonies of 

 beaver, not to mention countless numbers of deer, 

 bear, cougar, martin, lynx, bob cat, and unlimited 

 quantities of game birds. 



As soon as the government gets these trails built, 

 hunters will swarm into the country and this most 

 beautiful region will become a veritable slaughter 

 pen. The wild game which has helped make Idaho 

 famous will be no more, and even the bear, which 

 the government rangers have come to look upon as 

 a companion, will be a memory. 



The government rangers, who patrol this area 

 year after year, are instructed to enforce the game 

 laws, and the people they arrest are taken before 

 the United States commissioner and the fines put 

 in the school fund. 



WOULD PREVENT HUNTING. 



I would like to see the government prevent 

 the taking of any kind of firearm upon the re- 

 serve and simply allow fishing. The reserve is 

 dotted with pretty valleys, which will soon be put 

 under cultivation when once trails are built, but 

 even now a day and a half ride will take a person 

 from any part of the reserve to a store where 

 meat and provisions' can be secured, so that there 

 will be no absolute necessity for the killing of the 

 game. 



I shall take this matter up with the federal gov- 

 ernment immediately. I have not decided just through 

 what channels, but something must and will be 

 done before these trails open the country. 



There is another phase of. game protection 

 which is receiving too little attention, pos- 

 sibly, because great money interests are con- 

 cerned ; but no man or body of men or corpo- 

 rations have a right to trample upon the laws 

 of the people and the rights of fellow-citizens 

 because it is convenient for them to do so in 

 their own hurried scramble for wealth; ana 

 the laws in the Western states which provide 

 that irrigation inlet head-gates shall be 

 equipped with screens or paddle-wheels, the 

 purpose of which is to prevent the destruction 

 of trout, should be enforced. It is outrageous 

 that these irrigating ditches should be allowed 

 to run unprotected, so that the trout, which 

 enter the ditches in large numbers are car- 

 ried out upon the meadows to die in the bak- 

 ing sun. The expense of complying with this 

 law is trifling. A few years ago when we 

 were in the West the slaughter of trout in 

 this way was a common occurrence, and re- 



ports from the Wyoming Leader and other 

 papers of the present day state that the irri- 

 gation ditches are still unprotected in those 

 sections. But even more inexcusable than 

 the neglect to protect irrigating ditches is the 

 brazen effrontery with which the mills, brew- 

 eries and manufactories of various kinds, in 

 defiance of the laws of the land and the rights 

 of the people, still continue to defile oui 

 streams and rivers with the filthy, poisonous 

 and vile refuse which these manufactories, 

 mills, etc., drain into the nearest water- 

 course, simply because it is the easiest way 

 to dispose of their refuse and utterly regard- 

 less of the effect it has on the purity of the 

 water, the lives of the fish and the lives 

 of the people on the banks, who are com- 

 pelled to use the polluted streams. 



Wherever game wardens are appointed and 

 anxious to do their duty we would suggest 

 that they begin at the top and arrest the big 

 offenders before arresting the small boy with 

 a pin hook, who is caught fishing on Sunday 

 — not that we wish to excuse any law-break- 

 er, however unimportant the part he plays, 

 but the whole community would have more 

 respect and regard for the law if the big of- 

 fenders were made to feel that they were not 

 immune and are as subject to the law and its 

 penalty as the small boy with the pin hook. 



We would like to call the attention of the 

 Tennessee game and fish protective associa- 

 tion, and also the people advocating the Bit- 

 ter Root Game Preserve, to the fact that Rec- 

 reation's editor has made a committee of 

 gentlemen, whose names appear in the maga- 

 zine and who are working for the purchase 

 and preservation of the remaining buffalo, 

 and to ask that the people interested in the 

 aforenamed associations join hands with us 

 in this great work and to promise them that 

 in return we will use our influence to help 

 them in their educational work and their ef- 

 forts for game preserves. 



PROTECTORS OF THE BISON. 



The Standing Committee for the Protection 

 of the American Bison is constituted as fol- 

 lows : Caspar Whitney, Outing ; Richard 

 Watson Gilder, Century; Melville Stone, 

 President Associated Press ; George Bird 

 Grinnell, Forest and Stream ; Frank Double- 

 day, Editor World's Work; Charles Lanier,. 

 Editor Country Calendar; Clarke Howell, 

 Atlanta Constitution; Howard Eaton, Guide 

 and Ranchman; John Muir, California; W. 

 E. Palmer, San Francisco ; Henry Van Dyke, 

 Princeton, N. J. ; Homer Davenport, cartoon- 

 ist and Wild Animal Farmer ; Hamlin Gar- 

 land, Novelist and Lecturer; Robert C. Mor- 

 ris, New York City; John Burroughs, West 

 Park, N. Y. ; Martin J. Elrod, University of 

 Montana, Missoula, Montana; Robert Under- 

 wood Johnson, Century; Daniel K. Hall, 

 Glen Cove, N. Y. 



