170 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Maboh 19, 1891. 



THE MAINE GAME QUESTION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It is with considerable reluctance that I take up the 

 task of replying to a letter of Mr. Manly Hardy in the 

 Forest and Streajvi of Feb. 26, 1891. In the outset, per- 

 mit me to say that I dislike a controversy in a newspaper 

 above all things, and am well aware that the readers 

 thereof share in my dislike. Indeed, were it not that a 

 principle is involved, that the principles of Forest and 

 Stream itself are involved in having published "Special's" 

 articles for six or eight years, believing them to be the 

 truth, that personal attack upon "Special" would never 

 have been replied to by me. 



In the first place, it may be well to state that I am con- 

 vinced that Mr. Hardy is honest in his opinions; indeed, 

 that he is an honest man, and, so far as his knowledge 

 extends, he would not knowingly mislead the readers of 

 the Forest and Stream in regard to the situation of game 

 protection in Maine, the way to do it, or any of the af- 

 fairs of the State immediately connected with that subject. 



So far as Mr. Hardy's knowledge is concerned, so far 

 as he has thought, he is right in regard to "Special." He 

 evidently supposes him to be a writer in Boston or some- 

 where else, writing about Maine game affairs like a long- 

 distance war correspondent. But it would perhaps sur- 

 prise him to know that the writer behind the nom de 

 plume of "Special" was born in Maine, in a back town 

 (he is proud of it), schooled in one town in Maine, fitted 

 for college in another town in that State, college-trained 

 in another town, now a city, began newspaper life in yet 

 another town, only removing to a larger New England 

 city for the sake of the better oiDportunities offered, 

 "Special" also visits Maine twice annually for the sake of 

 the dear old hills, the woods and waters, and the little 

 share of fish and game that is left to him after the legal 

 open seasons commence. That "Special" is ia daily con- 

 tact with "sportsmen" and tradesmen who visit Maine, 

 and goes there himself as often as occasion or business 

 requires is another fact that Mr. Hardy should under- 

 stand, lest he make another mistake; also that he is fully 

 aware of the number of deer being shipped to Boston 

 commission houses in the close season, and at a time 

 when the city sportsmen are certainly at home. 



That certain of the lumberland owners of Maine would 

 willingly see all the fish and game laws of that State re- 

 pealed is capable of proof, and that they would try some 

 such action before the Legislature of that State this win- 

 ter was communicated to me by men in whom I have 

 confidence, need not be repeated. One of the largest 

 land, owners in Maine has told me himself that he should 

 be glad of any form of law or any means whereby fisher- 

 men and hunters could be kept away from his lands. 

 "We don't want them there," he said, "we are afraid of 

 their fires." Mr. Hardy must also be aware that the 

 present game laws of his State were left in their present 

 ineffective condition for the simple reason that a lumber- 

 land owner proposed the amendments that weakened 

 these laws at the very last hours of the session two years 

 ago, and at a time when the friends of the laws as pro- 

 posed had all gone home. 



Mr. Hardy objects to "true sportsmen." I do not. By 

 the term, I mean a man who will not kill game in close 

 time. There are many such who go to Maine. X can 

 give Mr. Hardy some of their names. Some of them own 

 camps and cottages on lands leased of the lumber land 

 owners, costing thousands of dollars. I have in mind 

 one such gentleman, who rowed three miles in an open 

 boat himself one night, to try to extinguish a fire that 

 some canapers had left burning. He could not even wait 

 for a mari to come to row the boat, though he had several 

 men at work not far away, who would be in at nightfall. 

 The fire was set by some native hunters, and it could not 

 be extinguished for several weeks, though it was kept in 

 check by the efforts of crews of men from the camps in 

 that region, till the fall rains came. True sportsmen 

 will not kindle fires in the forest, neither will they 

 kill game out of season, even at Nicatouse, where, 

 it must be admitted, the love of the game laws is at low 

 ebb. 



But Mr. Hardy should not for a moment imagine again, 

 from the above, that I stand up for either the hunter from 

 Massachusetts, New York or Yale College, that goes to 

 Maine to kill deer in close time. If he does again allow 

 himself to so think, I shall be obliged to accuse him of 

 not having read my letters carefully. I defy him to pro- 

 duce either word or line that I have ever ^vTitten for the 

 Forest and Stream defending the killing of game out 

 of season in Maine or any other State. The files of the 

 Forest and Stream for all the time I have written for 

 it are at his service; for if he does not have them at hand 

 I will forward them to him, express paid. I shall expect 

 that he will show some words from me defending those 

 from outside of his State who have killed game out of 

 season, or I can with justice claim in the Forest and 

 Stream that the principal accusations in his letter in that 

 paper of the issue of Feb. 26 have fallen to the ground 

 for lack of truth. 



I am also here obliged to ask him if he will kindly point 

 out a single paragraph wherein I have denounced any- 

 body, either citizen of Maine or any other State, except 

 the enemies of the enforcement of the game laws of that 

 State as interpretpd by its able and honest commission- 

 ers. I shall be obliged to request him to refer this para- 

 graph to those commissioners and ask them if I have 

 ever denounced any other citizen of Maine. With reply- 

 ing to the accusations of Mr. Hardy I am done, except that 

 I must request him in his careful perusal of what I have 

 written in Forest and Stream to carefully note the 

 many times I have openly denounced the carrying of 

 guns into the Maine woods by anybody in the close time 

 for game; to note where I say in substance that if any- 

 body does this and gets shot, why, I am simply glad of 

 it. Something like this idea he will find in connection 

 with the shooting of the son of the Massachusetts profes- 

 sor, with the noted Connecticut professor, the announce- 

 ment of which piece of news was made by me in the 

 Forest and Stream at the time, or as near to the time 

 as the news got out. Will he also carefully note the con- 

 demnation that I gave in the case where a New York 

 sportsman got a charge of shot in his side, I think it was, 

 at Seven Ponds, a year or two ago, while attempting to 

 jack a deer in close time. Then there was the case of the 

 son of a Boston gentleman, who was shot by his own 

 rifle, in a Maine camp, last summer, or a year ago. He ! 

 will find the case if be reads the back numbers of the 

 Forest and Stream carefully. There I say in substance ' 

 that the boy had no business with a rifle in camp in close ; 



time, and that if he was killed his parents had only 

 themselves to blame. The editor of Forest and Stream 

 will tell Mr. Hardy that I have very often scathed the 

 breakers of the Maine game laws—several of the very 

 ones that Mr. Hardy mentions in his letter — so severely 

 in my articles that he has been obliged to soften and tone 

 down the language, lest it might appear that I were 

 altogether too severe. 



With answering the -attack of Mr. Hardy the above 

 ruust suffice, but he wiU permit me to submit a proposi- 

 tion to his judgment. I desire him to answer it through 

 the Forest and Stream. Now, suppose that for some 

 cause or other it should happen to become the thing to do 

 for about all of the vacationists of the country to burglar- 

 ize houses in Boston. Indeed, allow that the desu-e for 

 robbing houses in Boston had greatly increased during a 

 few years; that even Maine visitors to the city had 

 grown to have a passion for this thing. Now we will 

 suppose that the Maine visitor does not even know the 

 streets of Boston : does not know the location of the house 

 he desires to rob, but that there are a set of men in Boston 

 who are ready to guide him to the house for pay. Nay, they 

 will even furnish the conveyance and "holdup" the place 

 while the Maine "sportsman" you may call him, if you 

 desire, does the robbery — ^brings off the trophy. House rob- 

 bing becomes very common; even the "guide's" themselves 

 are at it. Now it is necessary to enforce the law of Massa- 

 chusetts against burglary. Where shall the officers begin? 

 Shall they rush to a "newspaper and complain of the Maine 

 "sportsmen," and claim that the "sportsmen" from Maine 

 are altogether to blame; that the Boston "guides" have 

 become disgusted with the robberies committed by the 

 Maine visitors ? Shall they say, "Keep your Maine sports- 

 men out of our city and the robberies will cease?" Has 

 Mr. Hardy never heard about such a thing as an acces- 

 sory in a crime? Don't the Maine laws have something 

 to say about an accessory before the fact, wherea "guide" 

 writes letters telling thieves where the booty lies, when 

 to come, etc.? Suppose that it was almost impossible for 

 the visitors to find the particularly desired booty in the 

 great city; that the visitors are"^not experts at stealing; 

 yea, even that it would be almost impossible for these 

 visitors to get the booty unless guided by experts, where 

 would Mr. Hardy begin to enforce the laws of Massachu- 

 setts against this stealing ? 



I think that Mr. Hardy will reply that I have put the 

 comparison in too strong terms. Please remember that 

 I have drawn no comparison. I have not even men- 

 tioned the other side of the comparison. I have left that 

 for him. He may say that 1 have put the case too 

 severely; that shooting deer in close time is not a crime 

 against society, and that housebreaking is; that the 

 illegal killing of game is only a crime against the State. 

 Well, then, put it in a different form, if you please. 

 Suppose that it was the thing for Maine visitors to do to 

 pluck the flowers from the Public Ciiarden, or from pri- 

 vate yards and greenhouses. That these visitors had to 

 be guided by Boston "guides" in order to know where 

 the flowers were; indeed, that they would not succeed 

 in getting a flower once in a dog's age, unless assisted 

 by a Boston " guide," where should we begin to 

 enforce the law? Stealing flowers before the owner 

 is willing that you should gather them is scarcely 

 worse than shooting game in the legal close time. 

 Now let Mr. Hardy tell the readers of the Forest and 

 Stream squarely whether if Maine people universally 

 stood by their own game laws and refused to assist ' 'sports- 

 men" from other States in the illegal killing of game, if 

 the whole work would not be done; then take the last 

 sentence in his own article in that j^aper of Feb. 26, and 

 see again how it sounds: "The fact lies just here: keep 

 your true sportsmen out of our woods in close time and 

 our own people will respect the laws; hxit if these gentle- 

 men see fit to keep on doing as they have done, and have 

 a man like 'Special' to charge their sins to us, they must 

 not blame Maine people if we join with them in killing 

 in close time," Special. 



GAME IN THE NATIONAL PARK. 



YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PAEK, Wyoming, 

 March 10— Editor Forest and Stream: On Feb, 



14 Capt, F. A. Boutelle, who has been Acting Superin- 

 tendent of the Park for the past two years, turned over 

 to Capt. Geo. S. Anderson, Troop I, 6th XJ. S. Cavalry, 

 the government of the Park, civil and military. Troop I 

 is just from Pine Eidge and the Sioux Indian war. They 

 anticipate a much pleasanter time liere than herding 

 hostile Indians. 



Up to Feb. 14 we had had very little snow; what there 

 was could easily have been absorbed by the dry ground, 

 Scarcely any of the water would have found its way to 

 the streams. Since that date we have been blessed with 

 several snowstorms that have been very extensive, cover- 

 ing the whole country with what insures good grass and 

 plenty of water, although the body of snow for the Park 



15 about one-third to one-half the usual quantity. 



The mail carrier for the Park hotels reports about 3ift. 

 from Norris to the Fails of the Yellowstone, a section of 

 the country noted for its deep snow. The cold waves have 

 averaged from 16" to 18 ' below zero, except at Soda 

 Butte, where they claim — 40". 



All kinds of game are in the best possible condition to 

 stand the severe storm and deep snows. I have noticed 

 less scabby animals this season than ever before. 



The mountain sheep have returned to the Gardiner 

 Canon once more. They suddenly disappeared from 

 there last winter, driven out either by shooting or a 

 mountain lion, their greatest enemy. There are about 

 350 antelope on the flat across Gardiner Elver from the 

 town. Several large bands are on the hillsides betw^een 

 Hellroaring and Stough Creek. Othei-s are about Junc- 

 tion Butte and the Blaoktail country. There cannot be 

 less than 800 antelope in the Park. 



There are several small bands of blacktail deer nea.t 

 the Mammoth Hot Springs. It is noticeable that these 

 deer axe preparing to stay all winter in the Park, where 

 before they have left for a lower and more open country, 

 where there is less snow. This has been the case with 

 all game animals in the mountains. When the snow 

 begins to fall they seek lower altitudes, but the settle- 

 ments of the countiy has compelled them to change 

 their habits. The blacktail were the last of the deer 

 kind to do this, 



I have tried to get an estimate from a great many peo- 

 ple acquainted with the country as to the number of elk 

 m the Park and vicinity. They claim all the way from 



25,000 to 75,000, some as high as 100,000. Without a 

 doubt there aer not less than 25,000 elk on this reservation . 



I am unable to give an accurate estimate of the number 

 of buffalo in the Park. Last summer several bands were 

 seen with from one to eighteen calves. It would be 

 necessary to make an extended snowshoe trip over- a 

 greater portion of the Park in order to see most of the 

 buffalo or arrive at a definite estimate as to numbers. If 

 they have not been driven from the Park there ought to 

 be not less than 400 on the National Eeserve, this allow- 

 ing for a very small increase and more than natural loss. 

 They are so wild and unmanageable that the greatest 

 caution is necessary to get a glimpse of them in the tim- 

 ber, where they usually spend most of their time. 



I learn that very few buffalo have been seen in the 

 Hayden Valley, where usually quite a band spends the 

 winter, owing probably to quite extensive fu-es which 

 burned their winter feed. None of the moose that fre- 

 quent the section of the Park between Mt, Holmes and 

 Norris Basin have been reported, though quite a number 

 range in the unfrequented section. 



A few local shocks have been felt at Norris Basin and 

 violent enough to throw dishes, etc.. from the tables at 

 the hotel. ' H. 



THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION. 



BOSTON. Mass., March 18.— The Massachusetts Fish 

 and Game Protective Association held its regular 

 monthly meeting at Young's Hotel last evening. Presi- 

 dent Samuels presided , 45 members being present. The 

 following were elected: Benj. V, Howe, S. G, Brooks, 

 Selim S. White, A. H. Wright, Cyrus Thacher, Samuel 

 C. Bennett, Jas. H. Lange, Wm. F. Ray, Chas. Stewart, 

 Sidney Gleason, Frank A, Nelson, Stephen Mieusset, E. 

 B. Blodgett, Wm. R. Scott, John Cowen, Willard D. Ball, 

 Robt. M. Read, Abbott Frazar, Willard S. Peel and J. G. 

 Bartlett. Fifteen applications for membership were re- 

 ferred to the committee. 



President Samuels said that the open season on wood- 

 cock and partridge would probably begin on Sept. 15 and 

 on quail Oct. 15. These dates have been reported upon 

 favorably by the committee of fisheries and game at the 

 State House and will probably be adopted. 



Mr. Samuel Hanson for the fund committee reported a 

 total of $926.26, as the Association fund, |357 having 

 been added last year. 



Mr. John Fottler, Jr., for the game committee, stated 

 that 1 000 quail and 200 prairie chickens had been re- 

 ceived and distributed in twenty-one different localities. 

 The 150 white hares had not yet arrived, but were ex- 

 pected very soon. 



Capt. James H. Jenkins, of West Barnstable, com- 

 plained of the damage caused by skunks, and stated that 

 since the town of Barnstable had offered a bounty on 

 these animals, the town Nhad paid out |250 in bounties 

 at twenty- five cents per head. 



President Samuels spoke of the damage caused by cats, 

 which roam wild through the woods and kill off lots of 

 birds, 



Mr, Henry G. Thayer moved that the Association in- 

 dorse the petition now before the Legislature for a bounty 

 on skunks, foxes and other carnivraous animals, which it 

 was voted to do. 



Mr. John Fottler suggested that sportsmen take one day, 

 and instead of a gun carry a bill-hook, and erect little 

 piles of brush, where birds can find a safe retreat from 

 their enemies. "It is of no use to import birds unless we 

 can protect them," said Mr. Fottler; "stop snaring, plant 

 food and erect shelters, and the game will increase." 



A letter from So. Gardner, asking for a close season on 

 pickerel from Jan. 1 to May 1, was referred to the com- 

 mittee on legislation. Dr.'Heber, for the committee on 

 securing headquarters, reported progress. 



All the fish and game associations in New England are 

 to be invited to attend the next monthly dinner and meet- 

 ing of the Association, to be held at "Hotel Thorndike, 

 Boston, on Thursday evenina-, AprU. 9, at T o'clock, to 

 discuss the subject of uniform game laws in New 

 England. 



New England associations for the protection of fish and 

 game are cordially invited to send their address to the 

 secretary. Eiohard O. Harding. 



301 Washington Street, Boslon, Mass. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, March 13.— In the matter of positive success 

 nothing has yet been attenq^ted by way of legislative 

 measures. The State Sportsmen's Association's commit- 

 tee on legislation held its final meeting yesterday at Mr. 

 Chairman Low's olfices. Mr. Low himself has been 

 seriously ill for a week and was forced to leave early. 

 Mr. NichoUs was at home, also sick. Mr. Donald, Mr. 

 Baird and Mr. Bostree were present. South Water street 

 was not present. A well- drafted bill was at hand and 

 was discussed carefully. This bill will go down to Spring- 

 field for handling about as it is now. It is not radical or 

 sweeping in its demands, and if it could ever be laid fully 

 and pleasantly and fairly before the people, of Illinois, it 

 would doubtless be approved in whole. The bill will ask 

 that the quail date be made Oct. 15 instead of Oct. 1, as 

 it is now; that any quail exposed for sale shall show shot 

 marks; that the selling season shall close Jan. 10 or Jan. 

 1 (open for comj)i-omise); that the chicken season shall 

 open Sept, 1 instead of Sept. 15; that fish and game 

 wardens be appointed by the Governor at request of the 

 State Fish Commissioner. There is not an unreasonable 

 request in that. What a grand thing it would be if the 

 sportsmen should carry their bill! It will be introduced 

 in the Senate. Where is the Senator who wants a lot of 

 friendship and a'few votes some day, perhaps? He has 

 his chance in the supporting of this most reasonable 

 measure. 



Of course the chief opposition to the bill will come 

 from the game dealers. We never speak as we pass by 

 now. The game dealers have also openly said that if the 

 selling season were shortened to Jan. 1 or Jan 10, they 

 would not be responsible. They would obey the law, of 

 course they would; but the law wouldn't make any dif- 

 ference. In other words, Chicago markets would be run 

 wide open as a matter of retaliation. 



All right. We wish they would run South Water street 

 wide open for a while. That is just what we want. We 

 are getting ready for that. 



In the past there has never been a warden on South 

 Water street who would work against the game dealers. 



