384 



RECREATION 



FROM BELMORE BROWNE. 



Editor Recreation : 



I am having a fine cool trip and have a few 

 notes that may be of interest to you. I am 

 glad to say that the duck crop looks promis- 

 ing, except in Ontario, where duck are 

 scarce. In all the marshy lakes to the north 

 of Lake Superior I did not see one brood, 

 but in Assiniboia and Manitoba their name 

 is legion. Antelope are reported as fairly 

 plentiful in Western Manitoba and Assini- 

 boia, and the settlers are fairly respectful of 

 the game laws, though they kill occasionally 

 for meat. 



A bunch of fifty were seen once or twice 

 last winter from the C. P. This is, of course, 

 a good bunch for breeders — biu it is a sorry 

 showing compared to the noble winter herds 

 of fifteen and twenty years ago that num- 

 bered many hundred. The ever-present coy- 

 ote is still here, and somehow, with all his 

 sins, his voice mellowed by distance, has a 

 beauty when heard on the great plains. The 

 sharp tail grouse are increasing as plains are 

 turned into wheat fields. 



I get a steamer to-morrow that will take 

 me seven days to the westward and then my 

 fun commences. Goat are reported plentiful 

 one day's travel from here, and deer are very 

 numerous on the islands. I hear complaints 

 concerning the law on wild fowl;. the resi- 

 dents say it does not last long enough. Deer 

 meat is being eaten in the hotels here, and I 

 do not think the season has opened. This is 

 not right, as the visitor is made to respect 

 the laws, and the settlers should do the same! 

 Bear — black, brown and grizzly — are reported 

 as fairly plentiful on Admiralty Island. I tried 

 to get a stone-pipe for Mr. Annis, but in the 

 breadth of the continent I saw nothing worth 

 buying. 



The run of Typhee salmon in Puget sound 

 has not been large, and the sportsmen have 

 not made good catches with their polling 

 tackle. The sock-eye run has been very large, 

 and the canneries are wasting thousands of 

 fine fish. The salmon canneries are a curse. 

 I saw one cannery with thousands of putrid 

 salmon lying on the beach nearby, because 

 they had too many to can. A dam has been 

 made on Ketchickan creek at Ketchickan, 

 Alaska; no salmon ladder has been put in, 

 with the result that the salmon cannot ascend 

 to their old breeding grounds. Some of the 

 water, however, is used as drinking water, so 

 that may account for it. 



Belmore Browne, 

 Fort Wrangell, Alaska. 



Mr. Belmore Browne is a shrewd observer. 

 He will find, upon inquiry, however, that the 

 scarcity of ducks in Ontario is a permanent 

 condition. — Editor. 



A FOUL MURDER. 



Mr. Guy M. Bradley, the heroic and de- 

 voted game warden of the thinly settled wil- 



derness district known as Monroe, Florida, 

 was foully murdered on July 8 while making 

 the arrest of a plume hunter at Oyster Key, 

 Florida. 



He began his duties in May, 1902, and since 

 that time he has guarded faithfully the rook- 

 cries of the egrets and other of the Florida 

 birds. 



It was the well-known writer, Mr. Kirke 

 Monroe, one of the vice-presidents of the 

 Florida Audubon Society, who recommended 

 Mr. Bradley as being a courageous and ener- 

 getic man, with a comprehensive knowledge 

 of both the country and its bird inhabitants, 

 and Mr. Bradley lived up to the high recom- 

 mendation of Mr: Kirke Monroe^ and not 

 only guarded the birds well, but took a great 

 pride in his work and was jubilant whenever 

 he could report an increase in the number of 

 birds. 



He was conscious of the fact that while he 

 was on his cruises among the keys or toiling 

 through the swamps he was the target of 

 any plume hunter who should see him first ; 

 because it was an open secret that many of 

 these desperate men had sworn to take his 

 life; but Mr. Bradley proved faithful to his 

 trust and died in the performance of his 

 duty. 



But what we wish to call attention to, and 

 impress upon the readers of Recreation, is 

 the fact that this gentle, retiring, pure-minded 

 man, working to preserve the laws of his 

 country and to protect the birds from exter- 

 mination was MURDERED BY THE HIRED ASSAS- 

 SINS OF THE WOMEN OF THIS COUNTRY. 



The plume hunters only hunt plumes be- 

 cause of the demand which our women make 

 for the aigrette to stick on to their silly and 

 thoughtless heads. It cannot be possible that 

 any one of the most unlettered of these 

 women is ignorant of the fact that it is illegal 

 to kill these birds, and that every time she 

 decorates herself with the plumage of the 

 white egret she is openly defying the law and 

 paying the plume hunters a premium for con- 

 ducting their nefarious occupation. 



The desolate household, where a young 

 wife is left to mourn the terrible death of her 

 husband, and two little children left father- 

 less should be a picture to haunt every 

 woman in this land who goes around with an 

 aigrette nodding on her head. 



Recreation wants to indelibly stamp on 

 their minds the fact that the blood of this man 

 is on their heads, and that the aigrette they 

 wear, hereafter, will be in open acknowledg- 

 ment that they stand for this horrible crime; 

 but, to those who were thoughtless and who 

 are repentant we will say that the least they 

 can do is to contribute their pin money for 

 the support of the young widow and the edu- 

 cation of the fatherless children, and that 

 Dr. Wm. Dutcher, No. 525 Manhattan ave- 

 nue, New York City, will receive such dona- 

 tions as may be sent for this purpose, and 

 see that they reach their proper destination, 



