Oot. 5, 18&5 (J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



293 



The Doctor thought it would be almost cruel and bar- 

 barous to kill, for "they never could possibly get the meat 

 out;" but Swift proposed to take a shot or two at that big 

 fellow with the horns even if the wolves and cougars did 

 get the benefit. So it was agreed that Smyth and Swift 

 should take the big fellow, while Mead and the Doctor should 

 take another bull that was feeding somewhat off to him- 

 self; but not a shot should be fired at any of the others. 

 At the word four rifles belched forth their leaden messen- 

 gers, and again, and the blood of two proud, happy crea- 

 tures of the forest was staining the soft grass and green 

 leaves which nature had placed there to nourish them. 

 The shooting had been unusally accurate and deadly, and 

 the knife soon finished the work. 



The balance of the herd seemed to be dazed and unde- 

 cided, and loitered around while the boys were skinning 

 the two killed, and some even approached so near that 

 they had to be driven away with clubs. The whole band 

 could have been slaughtered right there, but gratefully 

 let it be recorded that here were four sportsmen that had 

 hearts in their breasts. It was a long way back to camp 

 and was getting late. 1 So it was agreed that just enough 

 meat should be carried back for supper and breakfast, and 

 on the morrow they would return and get the best of the 

 balance, and the antlers if possible. 



Late in the night, hungry, footsore and weary, they 

 trudged into their temporary, camp, well enough satisfied 

 with their day's work, and duly thankful that One Lung 

 had followt d them there, for he had a fine hot supper 

 ready for them. It was among the wee small hours 

 when the other boys went off to sleep, leaving Swift cal- 

 culating and figuring how in the world he was to get 

 those antlers out. 



X. 



" 'Tis a lucky day, boy." 



Mead had a sprained ankle (?) next morning and couldn't 

 go with the boys back into the elk country. One Lung 

 consented to do duty in his stead. Mead is pretty smooth. 

 In view of what he well knew must be in store for those 

 that did go the wonder is that he didn't have two or 

 three sprained ankles instead of one, and possibly an at- 

 tack of "plumbago" (my friend George Dehardy's favorite 

 complaint), besides. 



At any rate, poor Mead was in a pitiable condition that 

 morning — to hear him tell it. The boys started out very 

 early, with Swift in the lead, and in his countenance the 

 close observer or student of human nature might have 

 read a firm determination to bring back that old bull elk's 

 antlers or die in the attempt. Swift is a plucky fellow, 

 anyway. Possibly readers of Forest and Stream may 

 remember his remarkable experience in the Columbia 

 River one dark, stormy night last winter. If it had been 

 anybody else but Swift in that scrape possibly that elk 

 would be alive to-day. Yes, Swift has plenty of grit, 

 even if his judgment is a little defective now and then. 



We'll not undertake to follow the boys there and back, 

 for truly it makes some of us fellows just a little bit tired 

 to even think of it. 



Let them go in peace and may prosperity attend them. 



Mead's ankle improved very rapidly shortly after the 

 boys had turned the first bend in the trail. In fact it got 

 so much better that he concluded to take a little hunt on 

 the quiet and, of course, the other boys would never be 

 any the wiser. It could do no harm and probably a little 

 light exercise might really benefit his ankle, you know. 



So he took his shotgun and stole out near camp, hoping 

 to find a few grouse and may be a ptarmigan. But he kept 

 on walking and someway, sort of instinctively, laid his 

 course over toward the salt lick discovered by the Doctor 

 and himself two days before. And something, he didn't 

 really know just what or why, induced him to approach 

 it carefully. 



When within 20ft. of it he saw as fine a pair of antlers 

 as might be found on any buck in the Cascade Range 

 sticking up out of that hole dug into the side of the 

 cafim by the pawing, stamping and licking of the nerv- 

 ous, anxious animals. But Mr. Buck was too intent on 

 his job to observe the intrusion. Mead had nothing but 

 bird shot with him and hardly knew just what to do 

 under the circumstances. 



The buck had evidently struck an all day job and 

 didn't seem to care whether school kept or not. So Mead 

 decided to return to camp and get his rifle even if he lost 

 a good opportunity, rather than simply wound the poor 

 fellow without any reasonable probability of getting him. 



He hurried back, secured his rifle and returned. There 

 was the same pair of antlers or another pair just like 

 them. The next serious question was how to get at him. 

 He knew that if he walked straight up to the hole he 

 would have to be almost directly over the buck before he 

 could shoot, while to undertake to go around would alarm 

 him and one bound backward toward the canon would 

 land him in the brush and then — good by. After study- 

 ing over the situation for some time he concluded to be 

 bold about it and take chances. Holding his gun in per- 

 fect readiness he walked straight up to the bank and near 

 enough to the buck that he might have touched him with 

 the muzzle of his gun before the animal even thought of 

 danger, so entirely absorbed was he in that lick. 



O, gentle creature, would that thou hadst ere that day 

 learned that 



"Death rides on every passing breeze, 

 He lurks in every flower." 



There was a quick, nervous bound, a shot, and the mes- 

 senger of death had entered his pure heart. A few strug- 

 gles, a quiver of agony and it whs past. 



No more grouse or ptarmigan hunting that day for Mead. 

 He felt, and very naturally too, that he had done his 

 share for one day, considering the fact that he had a bad 

 ankle and wasn't feeling very skookum in general. It 

 certainly is a strange, but encouraging, provision of an 

 all-wise Providence that luck should always favor the 

 lazy. 



It was away late in the night when the boys returned 

 from the elk country. And what a nice lot of meat, 

 what a nice pair of antlers and what an interesting assort- 

 ment of cock-and-bull stories they brought back with 

 them. One would think to hear the Doctor and Swift 

 tell about it that it was something of a job to get that elk, 

 or the better part of him, particularly the horns, out of 

 that canon and down to camp. 



Doubtless the boys had good reason to think that a pair 

 of elk antlers had never been carried out of such a coun- 

 try before. The Doctor thought that it would be a good 

 idea to memorialize the legislature on the subject and try 



to have a law passed requiring the elk to keep out of 

 these deep retreats of the remote Cascades, while Swift 

 declared that he was going to have an elk park of his own 

 where he could kill an elk whenever he felt in the notion 

 without having to depsnd on their notions and caprices. 



But then it takes all this to make camp life really enjoy- 

 able, keep a fellow's reputation up and please the other 

 boys. S. H. Greene. 



Portland, Oregon. 



[TO BE CONCLUDED.] 



GAME NOTES WITH PENCIL AND 

 CAMERA.— IV. 



[Continued from, page %%k.~\ 



In almost every wild section of our country there is much 

 illegal killing of game, and Maine is no exception. We 

 Americans have curious ideas as to the observance of the 

 game laws, and where local custom permits their infrac- 

 tion there are few men who respect the higher authority 

 of the State. There seems to be a kind of unformulated 

 idea that in this respect each section is a law unto itself, 

 and that the people who live there have the right to in- 

 terpret the game laws as best suits their interests. As a 

 result we see sportsmen who are desirous of getting a 

 moose going into the woods of Maine in the middle of 

 September and killing in the close season the game that 

 they must wait till the open season to bring out. We see 

 methods of hunting, declared illegal by the laws, carried 

 on with a degree of publicity that only a game warden 

 could fail to notice, and we see game killed for food all 

 the year round. 



Maine being a State of vast game resources, has so far 

 been able to stand the drain made upon the supply by both 

 legal and illegal means; but she cannot always continue 

 to do so for various obvious reasons. For one, the num- 

 ber of sportsmen and hunters who visit her woods is 

 bound to increase emrmously in the course of the next 

 few years. * Good game covers in other parts of the East 

 are on the verge of extinction, having either been shot 

 out, or ruined by settlement or appropriated by clubs, and 

 Maine will each year find herself with a more difficult 

 task upon her hands .to properly farm her game supply; 

 for, if I mistake not, this is the idea that has run through 

 recent legislation, and it certainly is one of vital interest 

 to a large part of the population — railroad men, hotel pro- 

 prietors, guides, etc. 



Maine is no better nor any worse than some other States 



AN OUT F SEASON MOOSE. 



in her observance of the game laws, but there are several 

 snags in her way that will cause increasing trouble if they 

 are not attended to promptly. Of the warden grievance 

 I know nothing except by hearsay, but the State seems to 

 have taken a wise step in this regard in making the war- 

 dens give bonds and the action at any rate shows that the 

 legislators are alive to the emergency. 



One serious menace to the game supply, however, seems 

 to have escaped notice, namely the legalizing of the pos- 

 session of certain kinds of game out of season. This is 

 dangerous both on account of its bad moral effect and 

 because it opens up the way for a market for illegal 

 game. 



I stopped at the Prebble House in Portland, July 21, 

 and on a bill of fare bearing that date was the item, 

 "Haunch of Venison." Looking up the law I found that 

 possession of such game is not forbidden during the close 

 season provided it can be proved that it was legally 

 killed. 



The provision of course amounts to nothing. In our 

 day game may be kept in cold storage for years, and sum- 

 mer and winter are annihilated. How is deer meat killed 

 in January or July to be distinguish e<i from venison killed 

 in the open season? No doubt the Prebble House venison 

 was legally killed, but illegal venison might have been 

 substituted and no one would have been the wiser. A 

 market for game is a menace to the supply under any 

 conditions, but an all the year open market is still more 

 so. 



On the other hand the application of this law furnishes 

 a dangerous moral example. If one of the largest and 

 richest hotels in the State can serve its guests with veni- 

 son in the close season simply on account of its proximity 

 to a cold storage warehouse, why should the backwoods- 

 man who has the game at his door be deprived of the 

 same right? If a man can buy venison at any time, why 

 cannot he kill it at any«eason? 



To be effective a law must be logical and it must be im- 

 partial. That the Maine game laws are not effective 

 would be the natural sequence of such a provision. 



Following this line of inference and from previous ex- 

 perience in the Pine Tree State, I waa not surprised to 

 find public sentiment in Patten very lax regarding the 

 game laws. Every fishing party and every blueber- 

 ry ing party en route for the woods carried guns, and it 

 was common rumor that these arms were intended to 

 secure them meat. In fact, the circumstance that we 

 carried no firearms was more than once commented upon. 

 As we were leaving, an old hunter who seems to have 

 noted something amiss in our equipment, came up to me 

 and asked with considerable solicitude: "Where's your 

 gun?" I assured him that I had none. "Well, where'a 

 Darling's gun?" I told him that Darling was likewise 

 unprovided. The old gentleman seemed nonplussed and 



disappointed. "Going back in the woods and ain't got a 

 gun — how on earth do you ever expect to get a deer?" 



Said a certain storekeeper: "The laws are all right and 

 a good thing; they have operated to increase our game 

 supply and to prevent wanton slaughter, but if I am back 

 in the woods at any time in need of fresh meat, I am 

 going to kill a deer. It don't stand to reason," he added* 

 "that where there is such an abundance of game it shall 

 not be killed when wanted. I can use game often to a 

 good deal better advantage out of season than in season.'* 



His statements were advanced openly in the presence of 

 a number of citizens and were accepted apparently as 

 trite matters of fact. 



It was a hunter who said, and his remarks are signifi- 

 cant: "If I wanted to be real smart, when I shot a deer 

 from my canoe, I should aim to put the bullet through 

 his lights. He would run back from the water before he 

 fell and I would paddle along as if nothing had happened. 

 Later, if there was nobody around, I would land quarter 

 of a mile or so from the spot, so that my canoe would not 

 be seen too close to where trie deer lay, and I would get 

 what meat I wanted. After I had the skin off I could 

 call my meat bear's meat or anything I pleased and no- 

 body could swear to the contrary or bring forth a particle 

 of evidence that would get me into trouble." 



So much for the way the gentral subject is discussed. 

 One who accepts the evidence of his ears alone, setting 

 aside for the moment eyes and nose, cannot doubt that 

 among a part of the people at least the letter of the game 

 laws is a dead letter. 



Later eyes and nose both confirmed this conviction, and 

 part of the evidence then secured is presented in the 

 photograph of the moose killed out of season which ac- 

 companies this article. 



Incidentally it is interesting to note that the men whom 

 local report has it killed this moose are said to be at the 

 bottom of a warrant issued nearly a year ago for Jock 

 Darling's arrest, but which has not as yet been served. 



This warrant, if I am not mistaken, charges Darling 

 with having venison in possession in the close season, and 

 is based upon the fact that a sportsman he had guided is 

 said toTiave had with him parts of the carcass of a deer 

 the last day of September, though how this incriminates 

 Jock under the old law is hard to see. 



That it was prompted by jealousy and not by any desire 

 to serve the interests of the State seems apparent. 



Since Jock s<ld out at Nicotous and came into the 

 Sebois county be has met with much opposition from cer- 

 tain individuals who thought they had a monopoly of the 

 natural gilts of the region and a right to levy upon all 

 sportsmen entering it. These are the men, if report may 

 be believed, whose names appear on the warrant, and who 

 themselves killed the moose out of season. Their names 

 were given me by unprejudiced witnesses, and I heard 

 the story of the illegal killing from several sources. The 

 evidence against them would seem to be conclusive. At- 

 tracted by shots fired at high noon upon a certain day 

 early in July, a party baying on Sebois Stream went to 

 the spot where the moose was killed, and saw the game 

 law violators load the carcass on a raft and pole it down 

 stream to the dam where the road crossed. Here it was 

 transferred to a wagon and taken away. The meat after- 

 ward, so one of my informants told me, was distributed 

 among three families, whose names, however, he did not 

 mention. 



Every one living in the neighborhood knew of the 

 illegal killing, and as a stranger I had no difficulty in get- 

 ting the facts, yet nothing whatever has been done to 

 bring these men to justice. 



Though ready enough to express their disapproval of 

 the action, the native backwoodsmen will not take legal 

 steps, and the game wardens in that part of the woods 

 seem to be an unknown quantity. While the native 

 sentiment condones the killing of deer out of season for 

 food, it draws the line at moose. The natives realize the 

 value of this animal aside from its meat, for they know 

 that a good raw head will sometimes sell for as much as 

 $100, and they know that the outside sportsmen are 

 willing to pay good round figures to obtain such trophies. 

 Such men are always clannish, and many of them are 

 not in a position where they can afford to make enemies, 

 so the part of the fine going to the informer has no at- 

 tractions for them. 



It is the knowledge of this local feeling and the knowl- 

 edge that there are few such wardens as Collins, of 

 Presque Isle, that emboldens the law-breakers. By and 

 by Maine will wake up to the fact that it will pay to have 

 wardens back in the woods as well as at the principal 

 railroad stations and towns. . 



Darling is anxious to get his case tried and out of the 

 way. The warden from Patten went down to Lowell for 

 him once last winter, but be was not at home. Jock was 

 so much disappointed to have missed him that the next 

 time he was in Patten, finding the prosecution too busy 

 to attend to the matter, he volunteered to go back him- 

 self and round up tne witnesses. It is needless to add 

 that his offer was not accepted. 



When ve were in Patten the warden met Jock on the 

 street, and with a view to the trial asked him how long 

 he was going to be in the neighborhood. 



"All summer," Jock replied; "and if you've got a good 

 jail I'll stay all winter too." 



The foregoing notes on the Maine game laws are the 

 result of necessarily hurried and superficial observations, 

 and are to be taken for what they are worth. 



A great deal has been said lately ot the better enforce- 

 ment of the game laws, but in the section visited it was 

 not apparent. Not only were deer killed with impunity, 

 but also the more noble game, as conclusively shown in 

 the case of the moose, whose illegal killing I have de- 

 scribed. 



There are plenty of sections in the Adirondacks to-day 

 where deer are as abundant as they are in Maine, but 

 from these sections the moose has forever disappeared. 

 This is true of other parts of the Uuited States and Canada. 



The inefficient protection that si fiices for deer will not 

 do to protect the moose, and in my opinion, though the 

 deer may remain, it will not be long under the present 

 conditions before the "vanishing moose" has vanished 

 forever from Maine. J. B. Burnham, 



Game Laws in Brief. 



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