July 16, 1898.) 
FORESt AND STREAM. 
46 
Does anyone want to return to that method of killing 
moose at that season of the year under all circumstances? 
My own judgment is that we would better let the law 
remain as it is for a few years at least, still I am dis- 
posed to fall in with the suggestions of those who are 
deeply interested, such as hunters, guides, hotelkeepers, 
railroad owners, and others directly interested. 
Now a word in conclusion. I fear I have taken al- 
together too much of your time. 
These fish and game matters are of great interest to 
our people. We have a goodly heritage, the greatest and 
"best fish and game preserves in the world. They belong 
to all our people in their sovereign capacity — the poor 
man and the boy have equal rights and equal ownership 
in them. Nobody can take our fish or our game of 
right, but only because all of the people through their 
legally elected representatives have given the right, and 
any restrictions or limitations or conditions that the 
people, through the Legislature, see fit to impose are 
constitutional and must be obeyed. 
When a hunter takes a moose he takes some of my 
property, some of your property that all the people own 
jointly, because all the people have said he may take it in 
a certain way at a certain time, and if these joint owners, 
the people, see fit to say you shall take registered guides 
along with you when you kill moose or deer, or shall 
say you shall pay a license fee to hunt at all, there is no 
power on earth to say nay. 
A country doctor, born in a far away foreign land, and 
who came to this country to find a home, wrote and had 
it: published that our game, laws were unconstitutional, 
and wanted to discuss that question with the commis- 
sioners. We sent him a copy of the famous decision of 
the U. S. Supreme Court, drawn by Chief Justice Fuller, 
wherein this highest court of the land had just declared 
that these laws were all constitutional, and requested him 
10 shed the beams of his intellectual light upon the jus- 
tices of the Supreme Judicial Court of the United States 
of America, and enlighten them in constitutional law. 
Let us work in unison and in harmony, my friends, for 
the greatest good to the greatest number, and make 
Maine what nature intended it should be, the greatest 
recreation and pleasure ground of the nation — the para- 
dise of the sportsman, the Mecca to which all will go who 
are seeking health, pleasure and happiness. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Yellowstone Park Poachers. 
July 6. — I am in receipt of an interesting communica- 
tion from the Yellowstone Park touching on protec- 
tive matters in and about the park, and showing some 
of the evils and annoyances with which those in charge 
of this national playground and Avonderland are obliged 
continual^ to contend. The matter comes from a gen- 
tleman of responsibility and full information, who has 
had full opportunity to obtain his facts. This gentleman 
writes personally commending the manner in which 
Forest and Stream has "turned the white light" on 
Wyoming protective matters, and goes on to add : 
Last Sunday afternoon, the 26th inst., Dick Murray, 
of Henry's Lake, Idaho, came to Fort Yellowstone, and 
was stopped by the guard and sent in 10 register, as all 
parties passing are required to do. Lieut. Lindsay hap- 
pened to see him, and at once put him in the guard 
house. 
The next morning he was arraigned before U. S. Com- 
missioner J. W. Meldrum; pleaded guilty to a charge of 
hunting in the northwest corner of the park last 
September, and was fined $50. He had some money and 
pawned a saddle for the required balance, paid his fine 
and thought he was going to depart in peace, but to his 
surprise he was sent out of the park under the escort of 
a trooper, and when he reached the park line was given 
a written order signed by the superintendent, forbidding 
him to return without permission in writing from the 
Secretary of the Interior, or superintendent. This was 
in compliance with paragraph 11 of the rules and regu- 
lations. The history of this case is a rather interesting 
one to friends of game protection in the park, and is as 
follows: 
Last September a party of Eastern gentlemen came to 
this country on a hunting trip. They had made arrange- 
ments with a man named Patt, who lives in the Madi- 
son Valley, just west of the park, to take them out after 
elk and bear. Armed with letters to Gen. Young, then 
superintendent of the park, they were allowed to carry 
their guns through the park to Patt's place. 
Mr. Patt was unprovided with the necessary outfit, so 
employed two friends of his to assist him with his 
party. They were Dick Murray and Jim Courtney, of 
Henry's Lake, both leading spirits in the old organized 
gang of buffalo poachers, the worst and most daring 
and desperate gang of poachers who ever defied the 
park laws and the vigilance of the authorities. 
Courtney is the man who, during Capt. Anderson's 
administration, was arrested in Butte, Mont, with a 
wagon load of buffalo hides and heads, and was brought 
to the park and tried, but escaped conviction by bring- 
ing the other members of the gang to swear that they 
had seen him kill the buffalo in Idaho and outside the 
park. 
This delectable hunting party journeyed from Mr. 
Patt's ranch to the head of the Gallatin, and camped 
very close to the park line. 
Soon after this, two of Gen. Young's scouts, F. M. 
Scott and N. J. Malin, were making camp one afternoon 
in the Gallatin country, when they heard shooting near 
at hand. "Marching to the sound of the guns" they struck 
the trail of a band of elk which was being followed by 
several horsemen. They soon came up with two of the 
Eastern sportsmen and the two precious guides, Murray 
and Courtney. The Eastern gentlemen expressed them- 
selves as much surprised and mortified on learning that 
they were in the park, and said they had cautioned Mr. 
Patt against sending them even near to the park. They 
readily submitted to arrest, but requested the scouts to 
accompany them to their camp that they might get their 
baggage and bedding, etc., promising that they would 
all go to Fort Yellowstone and have the matter officially 
settled. 
Arrived at their camp a hard storm came up, and 
they proposed to the scouts to remain in their camp all 
night and go to the post the next day. 
Mr. Patt seemed much shocked and grieved to learn 
that Murray and Courtney had taken his guests into the 
park, although he well knew their predilection for hunt- 
ing inside the park lines, where game is most plentiful 
and least wild. 
The next morning, after an early breakfast, Murray 
and Courtney went out to round up "the horses and bring 
them in, so they could all go to Fort Yellowstone. 
Courtney has not come back yet, and Murray only came 
back last Sunday. 
The Eastern gentlemen expressed to Gen. Young their 
chagrin at being found in the park, and Mr. Patt corro- 
borated their statement that they had warned him not 
to take them near the park. He also stated that he had 
directed Murray and Courtney, on the morning of the 
arrest, to go west away from the park. 
The gentlemen were therefore allowed to i?o home, and 
a complaint was made before Commissioner Meldrum 
against the two real offenders, Murray and Courtney. In 
due course of time the warrant was returned by the 
deputy marshal! for the park, with the endorsement that 
the parties were not to be found in this district. On Dec. 
20, 1897, the warrant and complaint were sent to Mr. 
Gibson Clark, U. S. Attorney at Cheyenne, with the in- 
formation that the defendants were at their home at 
Henry's Lake, Idaho. Nothing more was heard of it 
until about the middle of February, when Capt. Erwin, 
then acting superintendent, addressed a letter to Attorney 
Clark, requesting information as to what had become of 
the warrant, or why the parties were not brought to 
trial. 
To this the U. S. Attorney replied that he bad ex- 
amined into the case, and from what information he 
could obtain it seemed unlikely that the case could be 
successfully prosecuted, and that he would not be justi- 
fied in incurring the expense incident to proceedings in 
Idaho to have these parties removed to this district for 
trial. How searching an examination the District Attor- 
ney made into the case, how reliable was his information 
or how correct his conclusion that the case could not 
be successfully prosecuted, is shown by the fact that Mur- 
ray knew there was an absolutely clear case against him 
and therefore plead guilty. It is also to be noted that 
after he was sentenced Murray expressed to the deputy 
marshal his surprise at getting off so easy. Just what 
examination Mr. Clark made into the case is not known 
to the writer, who is in a position to have known, had he 
made any proper examination. It is known positively 
that he had no communication with the. acting superin- 
tendent upon this subject, nor with any soldier, officer 
or scout under the superintendent's orders. Neither 
had he any communication with Malin or Scott, who 
were the principal witnesses in the case. 
It is hardly to be supposed that he gathered his 
learned but peculiar and erroneous opinion, expressed 
above, from an interview with the U. S. Commissioner, 
whose duty it is to express an opinion in such cases 
only when the evidence is all in; and any such supposi- 
tion is successfully negatived by the fact that Commis- 
sioner Meldrum issued the warrant for Murray last fall 
and by his action when the case finally came up for 
trial. 
Again, as to Attorney Clark's theory that the United 
States cannot afford the expense necessary to enforce 
its laws. If this theory is to hold, the two troops of 
cavalry now stationed in the park might as well be sent 
to the Philippines, where they can do some good. It 
is evidently impossible for two troops of cavalry to so 
thoroughly cover more than 5,000 square miles of this 
rugged mountain country as to keep poachers out or to 
make their capture, in flagrante delictu, certain. Perhaps 
twenty regiments of 1,200 men each could form a skir- 
mish line around the park and keep poachers out. They 
might be armed with rosewood clubs, like the policemen 
in Central Park, and gently, but firmly, enforce the signs 
posted upon the trees, "Dangerous animals; keep away." 
But with a smaller force than this the only way to pro- 
tect the game in the park is to catch offenders as often 
as possible, and when one is caught to make him realize 
that he has offended, not against county or State law, 
but against "the peace and dignity of the United States." 
In other words : to teach the people who live about this 
park the same respect for the park laws that they have for 
other United States laws. Take the United States 
revenue laws, for instance; how often one hears of people 
violating city ordinances and State laws regarding the 
sale of liquor and tobacco,, but how seldom it is that a 
man presumes to violate the United States revenue law. 
He feels that he cannot afford to take any chances with 
his Uncle Samuel. 
There is another very good effect that this case would 
have had had it been prosecuted. Many poachers labor 
under the impression that if they can once get. outside 
the park with their trophies they are safe, and if At- 
torney Clark's dictum is to stand they are correct. 
But once send into Idaho and arrest these parties in their 
stronghold, where they think they are absolutely safe, 
and they would learn that an offender against United 
States law is never safe. 
And this lesson, even if it did cost this billion dollar 
country a few hundred dollars, would, by its moral effect, 
do more good than could be accomplished by the ex- 
penditure of as many thousands of dollars in hiring 
scouts. 
To err is human, and perhaps United States Attorney" 
Clark made an honest mistake in not prosecuting these 
men. If so, he will now doubtless take immediate steps 
to rectify his mistake by beginning proceedings for the 
removal of Courtney to the park for trial. 
Minnesota Indians and Game. 
A year ago the .Minnesota Fish and Game Commis- 
sion carried to the Supreme Court the Indian case, which 
had been passed upon by Judge Baxter of the District 
Court, the datter holding that the Indians could do as 
they wished with all the fish and game they took, and 
were not amenable to the law. The Supreme Court, as 
was lately reported in the Forest and Stream, gave 
out the good law that the Indian was no better than 
a white man in matters outside his reservation. This 
decision had much to do with the three indictments 
brought by the Commission against a dealer by name of 
Davis, art arch conspirator who has made the wardens 
and commissioners much trouble. Now comes Judge 
Baxter again, and ignores the decision of the Supreme 
Court, so that Davis is free of the law. This postpones 
the case till the fall term of court, when it is very 
likely that another judge, Judge Searlo, wiii be on the 
bench. 
E. Hough. 
1200 Rovce Building, Chicago, 111. 
Trespass in New Jersey. 
Just as if the old law were not severe enough, the last 
Legislature proposed further protection for the owners of 
land; the Legislature wanted to be very severe, but in 
its endeavor to be so overstepped the limits and passed 
a law which is practically nugatory. The new law pro- 
vides that any person who enters the occupied lands of 
another for the purpose of taking any fish and game 
enumerated in the statutes shall be deemed, guilty of a 
misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of $100 or 
ten days' imprisonment, or any part of either or both, at 
the discretion of the judge before whom the case is 
tried. Notices warning trespassers to keep off are re- 
quired to render the law applicable. A glance at the 
provisions of the law shows what a foolish piece of leeis- 
lation it is. 
The first question which will arise will be as to the 
definition of "occupied" lands. It is hardly to be pre- 
sumed that mere possession means occupation, for if 
that definition were accepted there are no unoccupied 
lands in this State. If the lands intended to be protected 
are the holdings of farmers, how far does the restriction 
implied in the word "occupied" extend? 
The next interesting point in the law is the intention 
of the supposed violater. The law applies only to per- 
sons who with a purpose to take fish or game enumerat- 
ed in the statutes go on the posted property of another. 
It is consequently necessary to show the intention to 
take a certain kind of game and fish. A farmer may 
have his lands overrun by persons gunning for wood- 
chuck or chipmunks or fishing for hornpouts or pike 
and the law would not reach the trespassers, as the ani- 
mals mentioned are not included in the list of fish and 
game enumerated in the statutes. It will be a difficult 
matter to ascertain the intention of a gunner or angler, 
especially if he knows of the provisions of the law. He 
might accidentally shoot a few rabbits and quail and still 
his intention may be to kill only woodchuck, or he may 
take a creel full of trout when his intention goes no 
further than a few pike. 
The method by which the law is to be enforced is 
rather amusing under the circumstances. The law pro- 
vides that trespassers shall be deemed guilty of a mis- 
demeanor. Now to be tried for misdemeanor means in- 
dictment by a grand jury. Consequently it will be neces- 
sary for the land owner first to ascertain the name of the 
trespasser and then to make a complaint before some jus- 
tice of the peace where the offender will be held to bail 
to await the action of the grand jury. If all these formal- 
ities, rather difficult under most circumstances of tres- 
pass, have been gone through with, then after the countv 
has gone to an expense of forty or fifty dollars the ac- 
cused may be tried. 
Such nonsensical enactments as these generate a dis- 
respect for law, but then the new trespass law may 
catch a few farmer votes next fall, and if it does this its 
purpose will have been accomplished.— Paterson Chron- 
icle. 
Currituck Game and Fish, 
Currituck Sound, N. C, June 30.— While walking 
across the meadows to-day I flushed a large flock of yel- 
low-legs of the summer variety, or small-sized yellow- 
legs; there were perhaps 150. I was very much sur- 
prised, as it is fifteen days sooner than I ever saw them 
before. The tail end of the northern flight passed here 
on June 15, and to-day, June 30, they are back. I know 
they are not the same birds of course, but as the small 
yellow-legs do not pass here going north until about 
May i5s where could they have raised there little families 
and returned so soon? 
Bluefish have been caught in larger numbers off the 
Currituck coast this spring and summer than ever be- 
fore, while large-mouth black bass and white perch are 
abundant just now. 
I saw nine black ducks yesterday, two old ones and 
seven young ones about two-thirds grown. This is 
unusual. Wood ducks formerly visited us in large num- 
bers in June and July, but are seldom seen now; I think 
it is owing to the salt water in the Sound. 
I saw hundreds of green turtles dead along the 
Carolina coast this spring, and cannot account for sucil 
large numbers. They weighed from 50 to 500lbs. each; 
there must be an epidemic among them. 
More Anon. 
Indiana Season and Game. 
Williamsburg, Ind., June 23. — I was out for wood- 
peckers ip the cherry trees yesterday, and I notice that 
there are a lot of them this year. I have also noted that 
every year when there are a great many quail the 
woodpeckers too are very thick. This I attribute to the 
winter having been very mild and few of them having 
been killed by the cold, and also to the fact that there is 
abundant food for both birds in the shape of berries and 
insects. 
I have seen several local sportsmen who report from 
six to a dozen gray squirrels for a half-day's hunt in 
this neighborhood, but no fox squirrels at all. Last 
year there were a good many fox squirrels, but there 
are very few this year. 
There are no very good bass streams here, and very 
few have been taken this spring. I hope to take a fish 
in a few days, and will report my success. I hear that a 
lot of dynamite has been used in some of our streams 
of late, and I trust that the rascals will meet the fate 
they deserve for such contemptible work. A 251b. Ger- 
man carp was caught in Nolan's Fork last week, and one 
15ID. one, but as is usual with that fish it is not fit to 
eat. J. B. Hampton, 
