188 
FOREST AND STREAM. 4 
XMarch 8, 1902. 
Not very long ago, at the opening season, I landed at 
an Iowa town two days in advance of Sept. 1. In that 
neighborhood a millionaire land owner has an extensive 
ranch and had been shooting for several days with a party 
of friends. No one had bothered him and he had an- 
nounced his willingness to settle all fines promptly if such 
a necessity should arise. In fact, he had deliberately 
counted the cost of an infraction of the written and un- 
written law and was willing to pay the price. Two 
prominent judges of Iowa, twenty miles from this place, 
were arrested for illegal shooting and paid out. 
If the question of fines might be eliminated from the 
game laws and each violation punished by imprisonment 
with no loop holes to escape, no chance to pay out, a 
half dozen examples would settle the entire business. 
Many a man will take the chance of a fine who would 
be slow to run the risk of ten days in jail. The wealthy 
shooter who means to pay out if caught and the minor 
law breaker who knows the neighbors won't give him 
away would pass up the illicit sport that carried with it 
incarceration and imprisonment. Moscrip. 
s CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Wisconsin Waking Up. 
Chicago, 111., Feb. 27,— The formation of the Kosh- 
konong Fish and Game League, at Fort Atkinson, seems 
. to be the result of a determined effort to put a stop to 
certain abuses, and such is the resolution shown that one 
is disposed to believe that this is not going to be simply 
another instance of all cry and no wool. The undertaking 
is backed by all the clubs in and around Lake Kosh- 
konong, and the press of the vicinity is taking a very 
rational and commendable attitude in the matter, quite 
different from the old senseless outcry against the "city 
sport." The bulk of the money invested in sportsmen's 
clubs at Koshkonong is that of non-resident members, and 
it is at last admitted that these do not all have cloven 
hoofs, and that some of the wanton destruction of the 
fish and fowl of Koshkonong may have been attributable 
to local and not non-resident causes. 
It need not be said that the money of these non-resident 
men will be as freely offered as that of any dweller of 
the State, though in the nature of things the non-resident 
member of such 'a club as the Blackhawk Club, for in- 
stance, cannot avail himself so freely of his club privileges 
as those living nearer to the shooting preserves. Mr. 
J. V. Clarke and other Chicago members of the Blackhawk 
Club express their unqualified approval of the purposes 
of the League, and their intention of giving it support in 
all possible ways. The League is putting out little 
folders, giving a resume of the. situation as below : 
"There is a movement in many parts of the State, in- 
cluding Beloit, to join the Fort Atkinson sportsmen in 
their efforts in a reasonable and just cause. One of 
Milwaukee's best known sporting men, writing on the 
subject, has the following to say: 
" 'Having hunted and fished in this State for more than 
thirty years, I feel a somewhat natural interest in this 
subject. I can remember when the first flocks of canvas- 
back ducks made their appearance upon Lake Koshkonong, 
and while that noble game bird greatly increased in 
numbers for a number of years, many other varieties, are 
in danger of utter extinction and the pot-hunters and 
market-shooters have done their best to exterminate all 
kinds of game birds, as well as the large game of the 
State. 
" Tt is nq secret that for more than twenty-five years 
past there have been shipped from Lake Koshkonong 
many tons of fish every winter; nearly all of them caught 
through the ice by unlawful means," and the wonder is 
that a game fish remains within its waters. 
" A.11 the game and fish laws depend for their value 
upon public opinion, and it is good to see the people of 
Fort Atkinson and other cities and towns in the vicinity 
of Lake Koshkonong waking up to the fact that not only 
good citizenship, but their own interests, demand the 
enforcement of the fish and game laws. One visiting 
sportsman from Milwaukee or Chicago is of more value 
financially, to the citizens of Fort Atkinson, than all the 
pot-hunters that disgrace the neighborhood, and the 
people are beginning to realize that fact. 
" "The Koshkonong Fish and Game League intends to 
stop illegal fishing and hunting upon Koshkonong and in 
its^ vicinity. The League already has a large member- 
ship, and it is growing with great rapidity, and every 
member is pledged to report every violation of the game 
and fish laws which shall come to his knowledge, and to 
aid in all possible ways in the conviction of the offender. 
" Tt should be noted that the destruction of our game, 
and fish is caused by the wantonness and greediness of 
our own people, the residents of Wisconsin, and the cry 
against foreign hunters, non-resident clubmen, etc., is 
the sheerest nonsense, and every one posted upon the 
subject is well aware that, though the law prohibits spring 
shooting, every spring you can hear the boom of the shot- 
gun upon almost every lake and marsh in the State, but 
no non-resident can be found violating the law. It "is 
the citizens of Wisconsin, residing in the deer country, 
that slaughter the deer out of season; it is not the non- 
resident that is guilty of this iniquity.' " 
Big Cities and Non-Resident License Laws. 
Hon. Hempstead Washburne, formerly mayor of Chi- 
cago, and a sportsman of much experience afield, as well 
as in the legislative halls, when asked to-day what he 
thought of the Indiana license law, replied, "I don't 
altogether like it, of course, but at the same time I can 
see the other side of it. For instance, if the license de- 
manded of us Chicago people were $10 instead of $25, I 
would go there, and I might also take my young son 
there, who is now just learning to shoot. But at $25 
each, when we could not both go there more than three 
or four times in the season, I consider the luxury as hav- 
ing a shade too high a price attached to it. 1 think the 
idea is right, and its virtues may be seen by any one who 
will consult the local gun dealers, who rent guns and sell 
ammunition. They will tell you the non-resident law cut 
down the numbers of city shooters going to Indiana by 
more than one-half. If that is true, the birds of Indiana 
must have profited to that extent, and, of course, the main 
thing is to realize that there are now birds enough to 
go on in the same old way. 
"There is one point in this question which I have never 
seen taken up. yet I consider it should be a great factor in 
the discussion as applied to this State, or rather this 
vicinity of Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin. This is the 
matter of the great concentrations of population at or 
near the edge of a shooting country. Take the State 
of Illinois, for instance, with Chicago at one end of it 
and St Louis at the other, just across its border — no 
State could furnish game enough for free and unrestricted 
shooting for all the dwellers of these two cities who might 
want to go out shooting. It was plain enough that St. 
Louis^ was cleaning out the game in the lower part of 
this State. It was not a theory or a supposition, but a 
condition and a fact. So I think the Illinois license of 
$10 for all St. Louis and all other non-resident shooters is 
not only just, but wise and necessary. 
"If there were no cities in any of" this group of States 
with more than 25,000 inhabitants, I would not favor a 
non-resident law, for it would not be necessary. Certainly 
I do not think it necessary to protect Illinois against St. 
Louis, Indiana against Chicago and Wisconsin against 
Chicago. We had to take our choice of no license or no 
game, in all this group of States, and I take it to be 
largely because the big cities furnish many guns in these 
days. But I don't think it necessary or right to put the 
license so high as $25 as is done in Indiana. The Wis- 
consin bird license of $10 is high enough in my opinion, 
and I think the license is a good thing. 
"This shooting country in the West is not as big as it 
once was. It is growing smaller every year, while on 
the other hand the shooting population is getting bigger 
and bigger every year, multiplying out of all proportion to 
the extent of game country, just as well as it is true that 
the readiness with which this population can get into the 
shooting country is increasing every year. To that extent 
the cry against the city sportsman "is, in my opinion, a 
just one. It is not a question of quality, but of quan- 
tity. The city sportsman is a good fellow, but there are 
too many of him for the shooting offered. Naturally the 
city man wants his shooting as close home as possible. 
This has meant lower Illinois for St. Louis, Wisconsin and 
Indiana for Chicago. I don't blame the local men for 
objecting in any one of these three cases. The man who 
can't afford a small license won't break anybody's heart 
by staying home. I should not be surprised to see the 
day when there is a movement for a resident shooting 
license in this State, and the money turned in part for 
the purposes of a game farm. We can't tell where these 
questions willrun nowadays, but there is a tendency to 
swift and radical" measures, on the belief that something 
has got to be done mighty quick if it is going to do any 
good." E. Hough. " 
Hartford Building, Chicago, 111. 
Mountain Sheep* 
Yuma, Ariz. — Editor Forest and Stream: Some time 
since the writer of these notes addressed a letter to Mr.. 
R. A. Hume. Chief of Police at Lillooit, British Columbia, 
on the possibility of securing alive a few of the big-horn 
sheep and wild goats to be found in that section of coun- 
try. His reply, under date of Feb. 4, is far from en- 
couraging. He says: 
"Regarding the big-horn sheep and goats of which you 
wrote me, I may say that their home is in the Lillooit 
district, and some_ of the finest specimens in the world 
are to be had within twenty-five miles of this town. We 
are entirely surrounded by a double range of moun- 
tains, varying in height from 4,000 to 8,000 feet, and on 
their summits is to be found the game in question, but to 
capture and deliver any of them alive is too stupendous 
a task for any hunter in this section. To trap or snare 
one or more of them is within the bounds of possibility, 
but to deliver them alive is not. The mountains are 
rough and precipitous, and as the range of the sheep is 
ever in the most dangerous spots, one might as well try 
to lead down a wild bull as a big-horn. Beside these 
sheep, so far as known here, will not live in a low alti- 
tude. From one year's end to the other they are always 
close to the snow, their food being the young grass always 
to be found between the black and white lines. Therefore, 
the only practical way to establish a zoological garden in 
the interest of the big-horn is to do it on the sheep's own 
ground, and as this particular spot is a long way up- 
hill, it means a big climb, and sometimes a very cold 
job. Last year there were some very fine heads taken in 
this vicinity. One pair measured 17 inches in circumfer- 
ence and over a dozen others measured between 15 and 
16 inches. 
"Goats are less difficult to obtain, but like sheep they 
will not thrive in captivity. Their natural food is not to 
be found at a low altitude, and they pine away like a 
disappointed Democrat after a Republican victory. There 
are two species of them in British Columbia. Near the 
coast line they are small of size and decidedly rank of 
flesh. They sometimes weigh about 150 pounds, but in 
the interior of the country I have seen them weigh over 
300 oounds, and, in season, they are really fine eating. 
"British Columbia is, without doubt, the best hunting 
ground on the American continent — black, brown, silver- 
tip and grizzly bear; three species of deer, and nearly 
all the fur-bearing animals known to northern America 
can be found. But for big-horn, the greatest and most 
cunning of its kind, the district of Lillooit is without 
equal in the world. Quite a number of Americans visited 
us last summer, some from as far east as Philadelphia, 
and several parties came all the way from England. All 
non-resident hunters are required to pay a license ,tax of 
$50, and as it is a part of my duty to collect this trifle, I 
occasionally hear some oddly shaped language." 
While on the subject of big-horns, it, perhaps, will 
not be amiss to say something of them nearer home. 
Formerly they had a wide distribution in Arizona, but in 
many of our mountain ranges they are now little more 
than a memory. The mountains of southwestern Sonera 
are_ still blest with a goodly number of them, but the hand- 
writing of their undoing is already on the wall. Occa- 
sionally I hear of them being taken alive, but they do 
not live long in captivity. When food becomes scarce 
they migrate from one range to another, generally cover- 
ing the intervening distance during the night, but at 
long intervals daylight finds them still on the plains, where 
they are run down and roped by the vaqueros. Again, 
they are caught on the detached spurs of an adjacent 
range, are driven to the plains, where vaqueros have been;I 
stationed in waiting, and then the fun, begins, It is an^ 
old story in this country that, if necessary, a good' 
vaquero will kill a horse to catch a calf, and he will 
surely do it, if needful, to catch a big-horn. Under the. 1 
laws of Arizona, mountain sheep are supposed to be pro- 
tected, but the law is effective only so far as it can be felt*j 
It does, however, prevent the public marketing of their 
hides and flesh, and this of itself is no little virtue. 
Referring to the big game of Arizona and to the 
various causes that are now leading to its material de- 1 
crease, if not final extinction within its borders, there ! 
comes up one against which no bar can be raised. Oddly 
enough, the mineral resources of the Territory point to, 
and conspire at the destruction of game. The ubiquitous ( 
prospector, lured on by the glitter of gold, appals at no 
obstacle, shrinks at no danger and would, if it were 
possible, explore heaven and hell with equiformity in 
the omnipresent hope of "striking it rich." The desert 
places of the earth are his ; no mountain is too rugged or : 
too high for him to climb, no canon too deep or too dark 
to explore, and no desert too dry or forbidding to cross. 
At the beck of a fourteen-carat prospect he will take 
death by the beard and laughingly walk in. Against him 
there can be no contention. Settlements follow his dis- 
coveries, camps and towns spring up and the remotest 
wilds are robbed of their isolation. His very presence 
.is disquieting to the beasts of the fell. With the boom 
of the rock-rending blast and powder-tainted air, the time 
comes for them to be off. In a few more- years, with an 
extensive development of the mineral interests of the 
Territory, the big-horn and all big game will practically 
disappear. In the meantime they should be saved from 
the butchers, and a good thing made as lasting as possible. 
B. i 
Non-Resident Licenses. 
Boston, Feb. 27. — Editor Forest and Stream: I have 
been very much interested in the many letters from all 
over the country in the question of the proposed tax on 
non-resident hunters in the State of Maine, and I do not 
recall that many of the writers of these letters have 
favored the proposition. At any rate, the great majority 
have been against it. Now it seems to me that there are 
distinctly two sides to this question, and although I do 
not favor Mr. Carleton's plan, I am convinced that he 
is working on the right lines. If some strong measures 
are not taken to insure better protection against the t 
market-hunters and hunters that kill in and out of sea- 
son for sport and to supply meat for sporting camps, as 
well as for lumber crews, history will, I firmly believe, re- 
peat itself in the woods of Maine, as it has in the forests 
of other States that in years past had the moose and deer 1 
as plentiful as they are in the State of Maine to-day. 
They will go as the buffalo went. It will take some time, , 
I know, but it will be only-«a question of time, and then 
when the game is scarce and hard to get, we will realize 
what we have lost, and that we have lost what cannot 
be" replaced. 
The reason why I do ftot favor Mr. Carleton's plan is 
because I do not think that it is a fair one to the non- 
resident hunters. I favor his plan as far as it goes, but 
if, as has been shown, the resident hunters do the larger 
proportion of the killing of the game, why should the 
non-resident hunters be asked to take out- all the hunting 1 
licenses to furnish money to protect the game of which 
they are killing probably not over 20 per cent.? I have 
not forgotten the fact that the non-resident hunters pay 
no taxes in the State of Maine, but the millions of dol- 
lars that they spend on their trips into the woods will, 
I claim, more than make up for this. However, I am 
going to favor the resident hunter and not propose an 
even break, My idea is that if it is necessary to raise 
additional funds for game protection (and I am sure it is) 
that the resident as well as the non-resident hunters 
should be taxed, but only a part of what the non-resident 
hunter is taxed. If every non-resident hunter would pay 
a license of five or six dollars, and every resident hunter 
one or two dollars, I am sure that enough money would 
be raised to answer the purpose for which the Commis- 
sioners want to use it. 
I am aware that Mr. Carleton_ has had a good many 
hard knocks on this license question, but I am sure that 
he believes that unless we provide for our own no one 
else will. That he intends to do all in his power for the 
good of the fish and game of Maine I am thoroughly 
convinced. 
There is one other way to protect the game, and that 
is to stop its sale. When that is done the pot-hunters and 
market-hunters will stay at home, where they are most 
appreciated, no doubt. Now I presume some old Forest 
and Stream crank will say, that feller has either got lots 
of stuff or else he doesn't do any hunting. Well, he's 
right and wrong, too, for I don't do any hunting, and 
have never taken a gun to the Maine woods yet, simply be- 
cause I never have been there in hunting season, and I 
prefer the rod: but I would be willing to chip in with the 
rest to help along the cause, and he can call my hand 
in turn. L. O. Crane, 
American Duck Shooting. 
Chicago, Feb. 8. — Editor Forest and Stream: I have, 
read the book carefully and with much pleasure. It's the 
best book of the kind I have ever seen or read, and I 
shall certainly advise all my friends to get a copy. I 
have shot ducks for forty years, and really thought there 
was little I did not know of ducks and their habits, but I 
find I have another "thought coming," for I find many 
new ideas in the book. 
In the last article, "What shall be done?" I see the 
writer advocates Limiting the Size of Bags, Forbidding the 
Sale of Game and the Prohibition of Spring Shooting, all 
of which I believe in. Would make it in a way stronger 
by prohibiting cold storage houses from handling game 
of any description. If such a law could be passed by the 
different States, the. business of shooting for the market 
would soon be a thing of the past, and unless stringent 
laws of this kind are soon adopted, our duck shooting will 
be gone. Really, the two evils and cause of disappearance 
of game in this country are cold storage warehouses 
and cheap guns. E. W. Bangs. 
