228 



FOREST AND STREA-M. 



[AptiiL 9, 1891. 



next summer. If they do not do this before next July, 

 very few in this State will disbelieve the charge. If I 

 seem to neglect the fact that people from outside the 

 State have been fined before now, it is not because I 

 have forgotten it; this is a broader matter. For the 

 half of the year when non-residents are here and the 

 laws are constantly violated, no attempt is made to en- 

 force them, as we know and the Commissioner admits; 

 for the half of the year when few except residents are in 

 the State, they are at least partially enforced. The peo- 

 ple here demanded that the laws should be uniformly and 

 justly executed, and yet matters have grown worse every 

 year. It now remains for the summer visitors to state 

 openly whether they wish them enforced in summer, and 

 to do it over their own names, so that we may know who 

 they are. For every one who comes here is known by a 

 larger ckcle than he is aware of. He sees very few of 

 the residents, knows next to nothing about them, and 

 thinks that they know as little of him. On the contrary, 

 no one comes here whose whole cruise is not known by 

 at least twenty resideuts, sometimes by hundreds. What 

 he has seen done and said, what kind of a man he is and 

 all the particulars concerning him, are told from one 

 guide to another, are discussed in a dozen lumber camps 

 during the winter, are told agaui on the drive in. the 

 spring, and then are carried to a score of different towns 

 to be talked over by the inhabitants. Instead of being 

 done in a corner, what he has done is better known than 

 if it had been published in the daily papers. Next fall is 

 to be the decisive time in game matters in this State, and 

 it is necessary that those who speak should speak right 

 and then should live up to their professions. 



Of the charge of unconstitutionality of the laws I will 

 not now speak, since as lundertand it, it is dhveted rather 

 against interpi-etations of the laws than against their ex- 

 plicit meaning as they are printed, and the present dis- 

 cussion is a consideration of matters affecting sportsmen 

 from outside the State ratlier than local topics. 



A subject of miich interest to sportsmen, if they could 

 hear it discussed as it is here, is the way game matters 

 are managed in the Legislature. Abundant discontent 

 prevails. It is claimed that petitions sent in by the people 

 are disregarded; that officials are bought up, that log- 

 rolling and wire-puUiug are openly practiced, and worse 

 practices are carried on behind slight screens, while the 

 whole is controlled by raUroads, hotels and i^olitics. 

 That these charges are unreasonable and exaggerated is 

 not to be denied: that they are baseless is another matter. 

 "We have only too good reason to fear a substantial truth 

 at the bottom of some of them; for, speaking plain- 

 heartedly, non-residents have too openly declared an in- 

 terest in our game legislation for us not to take them at 

 their word. lili-. J. F. Sprague, of Monson, Maine, writ- 

 ing in Forest and Stream in October, 1883, says of the 

 sportsmen who came here at that time: 



iQstead of these laws failing to secure the approval of this class, 

 they have ever been their truest and most staunch and reliable 

 friends, and in more than one ins'ance these "professional men" 

 from otiier States have inspired or originated the acts which are 

 now the very laws so despised by "OUoo." 



In the Forest and Stream for Oct. 30, 1884, "Special" 

 writes : 



The request to change the beginning of the opea season there 

 [in Malnel to Sept. 1 will come from some of the leading sports- 

 men and filends of game protection in Massachusetts, Rhode 

 Island and Oonnecticat. * * * The request for change will 

 come from sportsmen who desire to add shooting to the f aU fish- 

 ing. 



Rev. Newman Smythe in Scribnea^'s Magazine for 

 October, 1890, says: 



EflEortg have been repeatedly made by the Kineo Club to have 

 the laws so m dified that, while the wholesale slaughter of deer 

 and moose may be pi'e vented when they are helplessly yarded in 

 the deep snows, some opportunity for legal shooting may be 

 granted somewhat earlier than October; and a bill which was 

 introduced int6 the last Legislature of Maine for this purpose, 

 passed one branch of that body but was defeated in the other by 

 some infiu'-nce adverse to sportsmen. Gentlemen who taKe to 

 the wooas m summer generally denounce, and are quite ready to 

 help expose indiscriminate and wasteful killing of dsh or game; 

 but as m the course of the season they bring considerable money 

 into the State, they naturally think that some liberty might be 

 granted them of feeding. 



It is the same old story of crust-hunting, and the 

 amount of money left; and we notice that the gentlemen 

 neither wait for the law to be changed nor for open season 

 to begin, so we fail to see what difference it makes. 



Then we hear the other side from our representatives, 

 how they were approached, how the lobby was too strong 

 for them when some popular measure came up; of the bills 

 that failed to pass, and the people who were there to get 

 them through. One bill I remember, as reported by our 

 own representative as long ago as there were pigeons in 

 the State, tried to make it a State prison offense to fire a 

 gun within SOOyds. of a pigeon bed owned by a certain game 

 club from out the State. We have heard the boast of the 

 man who declared that people outside the State could pass 

 "any reasonable laws" in Maine. We have heard Mr. 

 Stilwell say, when he was opposing an open September 

 some years ago, that "the men and the means" were there 

 to put the bill through. On the whole, we are "ower 

 canny" to disbelieve those who say that our game laws 

 are fearfully and wonderfully made. 



We do not deny that many of the bills introduced and 

 advocated by those outside the State, make good laws — 

 better perhaps than we should have made for oui'selves; 

 but the fact that they did not originate here arouses sus- 

 picion of their import, and, to our minds, makes the moral 

 obligation less. Even if it were all good and disinterested, 

 we have had too much of it. If for ten years Maine people 

 had besieged the New York Legislature with bills pro- 

 posing this and that means of purifying the municipal af- 

 fairs of New York city, and had concerned themselveain 

 season and out of season in telling New York people what 

 to do about it, much the same state of feeling would exist 

 there toward us that exists here to-day toward those who 

 have made our game laws for us; and however good the 

 measures proposed might have been, they would hardly 

 be called popular measures, nor tbe reform a popular 

 reform. 



How much has been done by those outside the State 

 we cannot say; but if our present trout law was a native 

 production it is the oddest bit of legislation with the 

 oddest history of anything ever produced here. One 

 thing I do know, for I was a child at the time and fre- 

 quently saw the man most active in it, heard htm talk on 

 me subject and remember the particulars. The law for- 

 bidding the killing of moose for five years was proposed, 

 drafted and principally carried through by a Massachu- 

 setts man, Mr. John M. Way, who published the first 

 tourists' map of Moosehead Lake. It was a good law 



and was very well supported, but was hardly a popular 

 measme, ,and was not primiuily int^^nded to beuteht the 

 people, but to increase the number of moose available for 

 sportsmen. Mr. Way saw the nted of .hi:?. The T'revious 

 winter he had stayed six weeks at Hat mock Like in the 

 camp of Mr; Gardiner G. GrinneiJ, of Nt^w Yurk, and 

 Capt. Samuel C )le, of Grepnville, trying to kill a moose 

 illegady. To illustrate how the law was passed let me 

 quote from a private letter written by a prominent game 

 club man to Mr. Way, who showtd it to my father: 

 "Don't get up petitions, for that will stir up the oppo- 

 sition of the country members. Get the right men at 

 Augusta yfared and ritsh it through, for it is hard to un- 

 make a thing after it gets to be a law." 



This is not the kind of legislation that does much good 

 here, and friends of game protection will be doing a favor 

 to themselves and us if they try to discourage it. 



Fannie Pearson Hardy. 



Erratttm. — I notice that by a mistake in copying my 

 last paper I wrote that the caribou horns werp t-o'id to the 

 station master at Maltawamkeag, when I should have 

 paid at Kingman, which is the next town above.— F. P. 

 Hardy, 



LASSOING A BEAR. 



VENTURA, Cal. , March 25.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 The followmg is from the Ventura Daily Free Fi^ess 

 of to-day's issue. I can vouch for its trutblulntss, hhv- 

 ing known Ramon Ortega fur sixteen years, his veracity 

 being unquestioned, and to-day, having h^ard the story 

 from his own lips and examined the trophy. He is re- 

 nowned as a vaquero and bear hunter, This is the story : 

 "Ramon Ortega lassoed a big black bear yesterday and 

 choked it to death. He is the most noted bear hunter in 

 southern California and several days ago when he began 

 to lose some of his stock on bis ranch at the head of the 

 Sespe, some 50 miles from Ventura, he started out to 

 hunt for the thief. Early yesterday morning he dis- 

 covered him in the shape of the bear, in a little narrow 

 can^on, and although without firearms, so soon as he 

 caught sight of the monster he spurred up his horee and 

 gave chase. It was a short race, for as soon as distance 

 would permit his lasso went circling about the head of 

 the bear and caught him about the neck. A few dexter- 

 ous turns of the horse soon choked the life out of the 

 animal, and Ortega, as a trophy, ctit off one of his paws 

 and brought it to town with him. It meastued seven 

 inches across and eleven inches in length. He tells as a 

 fact that in 1864 he and his brother killed 56 bears in one 

 month about the regions where Bard dale, Ventura 

 county, is now laid out, and they were all killed the same 

 way as the one yesterday." 



Six years ago, while crossing; the trail with his ten year 

 old son. to this same ranch, he came face to face with a 

 she grizzly and her two nearly grown cubs. He was 

 armed with a Winchester, but had only five cartridges at 

 hand. He succeeded in killing the three bears with the 

 five balls, the last of which was sent through the enraged 

 mother's heart as she reared to embrace Ortega's son, who 

 had been dismotmted by his frightened horse. 



A. J. CoiiSTOCK, M.D. 



WHY 1 GO HUNTING. 



Editor Forest and Stream; 



Some weeks ago your Chicago correspondent gave some 

 good advice to overworked professional and business 

 men. I want to add a few words on the subject, believ- 

 ing that my own experience is that of many professional 

 men. 



Some twelve years ago I made the discovery that too 

 much office work was using me up. I took too much 

 time to decide questions of judgment and worried too 

 much over the decisions after they were made; fomid all 

 my work hard woi k ; lost ray patience at trivial things; 

 was annoyed at trifies: would not eat or sleep well, and 

 was in a bad way generally. As I came of a long-hved 

 family, I did not propose to pive up without a struggle 

 even if the doctors did tell me I had u'tvous dyspepsia. 



I had a fairly good history of my family for a couple 

 of hundred years, and in looking it over made the dis- 

 covery that close confinement in an office did not "run 

 in the family." I now believe that in a n'-w country like 

 ours we have no type of olBce men answering to the types 

 of miners, toy makers, cobblers and hundreds of others 

 in the old countri' s. 



At this time a friend suggested hunting, since, living in 

 a small village, although having my office in a city, I 

 could readily find something to bunt. I had been fond 

 of hunting in my youth, but had never done much of it, 

 and none for years. My friend went home with me one 

 afternoon, and I got out my old muzzleloader and tried a 

 few shots at chips thrown in the air. The result satisfied 

 me that if birds were plentiful enough and got up close 

 enough to me they would not all get away; and I delib- 

 erately took up hunting as a means of improving my 

 health, and I have stuck to it ever since and mean to 

 stick to it so long as 1 can carry a gun. 



The first fall I went to Iowa after chickens, and found 

 I could do quite well at them, I made no profession of 

 bein^ a crack shot, and so was not annoyed in the lea^t 

 at misses. Never losing my temper I found a great ad- 

 vantage, and being a very industrious hunter I made as 

 good bags as much better shots. 



I am satisfied that there are many over-worked men 

 who could derive much benefit from hunting, and would 

 too if they only knew how easy it was to take it up even 

 quite late in life. For the last six seasons I have spent a 

 good part of November in deer hunting. I killed six deer 

 last November, and stopped every deer I should have 

 stopped. The year before I missed a running buck at 

 SOyds.. but killed a doe the next day with as easy a con- 

 science as though some other fellow had misled the buck. 

 Our deer club used to hunt with dogs, and your corre- 

 ppondents may say what they please about stiil-hunting, 

 but I would rather go out day after day and hear the dogs 

 and hear some other member of the party shoot a deer or 

 miss him, and never see one myself, than to pot-hunt a 

 dozen a day stOl-hunting. I have killed but two i~tHnd- 

 ing deer, and never want to kill another. Wenever killed 

 deer out of season, as is done all around us by the still- 

 hunters; never killed a deer in the wate r, and have more 

 deer around our club house than six years ago, and ex- 

 pect to have fine shooting for years to come if we can 

 keep off the still-hunters. We own thou^qnds of acres of 

 land, poison the wolves, ^ut out salt and plant turnips for 

 the deer, and do everythmg in our power to keep up the 



supply of deer. I killed one deer last fall at SOOyds. and 

 one at a35yd8., and ftlt better over it than t would to go 

 into a farm yard and kill a dozen — beg pardon— I mean, 

 kill a dozf^n standing deer, as they were both on the dead 

 run over logs and stumps and through brush. 



I have added fishing to my list of desirable sport^, not 

 becatise I can get many days actual fishing, htit because 

 one can spend so much time getting reany before the 

 season opens and so much time lying about it afterward. 



I throw a fly just as I shoot. Plentv of men can beat 

 me at both, but what of thai? I can efet as much fun out 

 of a few days in the woods, alons a trout stream, or on 

 the prairie, as any one. I claim that I c m do more work 

 in shorter time and do it better than before I took up 

 hunting and fishing, and there are thousands of over- 

 worked business and professional men who could say the 

 same if th^y would only give hunting and fishing a trial. 



What busiufss has a man whose father was a black- 

 smith and grandfather a farmer, and great-grandfathfr a 

 carpenter, perhaps, to think that he can sit at an olfice 

 desk day after day and not truffer for his foolishness 

 sooner or latex? The most extravagant thing a man can 

 do is to work himself sick; the n- xt worst thing is to 

 think he can do good work when out of condition. Plead 

 with your readers to treat themselves at least as well as 

 they do their horses. Dddley. 



WILDFOWL IN OREGON.-IV. 



IT is said that all true sportsmen abhor a pot-hunter, 

 and that no gentleman will pot a duck. But they all 

 do it. I have done it myself. I have seen the best of 

 them sneaking on to decoys, and have had the pleasure 

 of protesting against some of the most blatant taking a 

 shot at mine. A short time ago, in one of my rambles I 

 came suddenly upon a fine flock of mallards ft^eding in a 

 little secluded pond near Columbia Slough. Fortunately 

 I was not discovered, and quietly drevv back where I 

 could study the situation. My imagination came to my 

 aid and I could see the ducks sVimraing gracefully 

 around, feeding leisurely, entirely unconscious of my 

 presence and the ioipending danger. I observed that by 

 going around to the left I could come up behind a little 

 clump of willows within easy ranee of the game. Here 

 was a pudding and no mistake. With the stealthy tread 

 of a cat I ar>proachpd my unsuspecting victim-\ 'l even 

 got down and crawled. I was nearly to the willovvs and 

 cautiously peered through them to make sure. The first 

 thing that met my view was a dog sitting there under a 

 leaning willow on his haunches demurely looking out 

 over the pond, and the next thing I saw was a man 

 quietly lighting his pipe. To say that I eneak^d back and 

 away, clear away from that pond is putting it modestly; 

 and friend H. does not know to this day how near I 

 came to potting his stool of mallard decoys. 



The open season for shooting water fowl in Oregon be- 

 gins Sept. 1 and closes May 1, while in Wa hington it 

 commences Aug. 15 and closes April 1. Was-hington has 

 the best law. Mallard and summer or wood ducks are, 

 as a rule, paired and nesting in April and often in March, 

 while the wood duck shooting must be hjd, if at all, 

 about the ^st of August. It is a burning shame and a 

 sin to shoot ducks that are paired and nesting, and every 

 true sportsman will refrain from firing at them, law or 

 no law. The laws of this State mu«t be materially 

 changed and then enforced, and the various rod and gun 

 clubs are disposed to urge the matter at the coming ses- 

 sion of the Legislature. We hope that some of the East- 

 ern sportsmen will lend us the aid of their influence, and 

 I can assure them that their efforts will be appreciated 

 by their brethren of the Northwest. I have received 

 communications from the secretaries of several local 

 clubs relative to the matter, notably one from SPcrFtary 

 M. E. Pogue, of the Salem Cltib, wVierein he advocates 

 the enactment of a law pronibiting the sale of all 

 kinds of game, and restraining sawmill men from rim- 

 ning their savfdust into the stream^. Trout are sub- 

 jected to more grievotts abuses than are waterfowl, for 

 the reason that they are more helpless; but both need 

 the strong hand of the law to save them from ultimate 

 annihilation. Ours is yet one of the best States in the 

 Union for wildfowl and trout; but howlong will it remain 

 so unless the fowl can have decent treatment and the 

 trout can have pure, sweet water in which to live and 

 multiply. 



I will venture the prfdiction that, imless some prompt 

 and energetic action is taken by those in authority the 

 boy hunters and anglers of to-day will live to see the time 

 when they must fill their game bags with crows and jays, 

 and their creels with cbub5 and snckprs. 



And now my dear Forest and Steea:ii, in closing these 

 careless letters, I hope that, even if productive of no other 

 good, they will have given Eastern sportsmen an appe- 

 tite for a more thorough and perfect knowledsre of this, 

 to most of them, terra incognita, S, H. Greene. 



PORTLANU, Ore;^ 



CREASED. 



I SUPPOSE that every boy who has read much hunting 

 or Indian literature is familiar with the marvellous 

 shooting of the long-haired scout of fiction who, when- 

 ever he wanted a fresh horse, used to go out on the prairie 

 and crease an animal out of the herds of wild horses, 

 which were always so abundant in the books — and no- 

 where else. I myself, in the course of a somewhat long 

 experience of wild Western life, never saw any of this 

 "crpasing" done, although I once knew of its being at- 

 tempted by a somewhat loud mouthed and widely-adver- 

 tised character, who was once a resident of this Slate and 

 is now a showman. This attempt was not successful. 

 The man shot a litile too low and broke the neck of a very 

 handsome wild stallion. 



Instances of accidental creasing of game are not very 

 uncommon, however, and I recall one case where this 

 helped out a small party of very hungry men. 



There were half a dozen of us, white men and Indians, 

 who had for some days been following the trail of a small 

 war party of Sioux who had stolen a lot of our horses. 

 Partly by good luck and partly by the instinct of our 

 Indian allies, we made a cut off on the Sioux, and just 

 before light on the morning of the fifth day we overlook 

 them, killed four, and recovered all the horses. We lost 

 no men, though we had two wounded. 



When we had started on the trail of the Sioux wn had 

 taken what food we could lay our hands on, but this was 

 not very much, because we had expected to be gone only 

 three or four days. The consequence was that for the 



