128 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[Feb. 14, 1903. 
The law requiring fishways to be placed over all dams 
was passed in 1S97, but was given little or no prominence 
until I came into office. There were few people who had 
any idea what one looked like, much less how one was 
made. After considering the merits of several kinds, I 
decided that the "Buck Fishway," adopted by the State 
of Minnesota, was the most simple and effective. I had 
printed copies of plans and specifications made for the 
construction, giving scaled drawings and cuts of the 
exterior and interior, and plain directions for making, 
so that any person, without being a carpenter, could 
construct one in a short time. These were made a part 
of the notices served on the owners of dams, and as a 
consequence practical fishways are now constructed over 
nearly every dam in the State. 
_ The sawmills have been forced to desist from their old- 
time practice of dumping sawdust into the streams, and 
the waters are now clear of such debris. 
Numerous complaints have been received by this office 
regarding pollution of streams with coal dust, washings, 
and other debris coming from coal mines. The situation 
is most serious on the upper Yellowstone River below 
Horr, and on Rocky Fork Creek below Red Lodge. 
There is no question that this practice has totally 
destroyed the fishing in these sections, and where the 
water has to be used for domestic purposes it is very 
disagreeable if not unhealthy, to say the least. Senate 
Bill No. 56 of the session of 1901 was no doubt intended 
to cover such cases as these, but it is so constructed that 
one section absolutely repealed the other, thus annulling 
the bill. It is to be hoped that this session of the Legis- 
lature will take some action in the matter that will 
remedy this state of affairs. 
The most contemptible and despised violator with which 
we have to deal is the "dynamiter." I am sorry to say 
that many reports of this character have been received, 
and that while many of them no doubt are imaginary, 
nevertheless some of this work has been going on. We 
have been unable to convict the parties arrested, although 
in every instance we had a good case. As the offense 
is_ a felony, you must, to satisfy a jury, have an eye- 
witness, and in cases of this kind this is almost impossi- 
ble. In committing this offense the person not only ruins 
the majority of the fish that he gets so that they are unfit 
for use, but he kills all the small fry, and destroys all the 
feed in the hole, so that the fish will seldom return 10 
the place for years, 
I took up the matter this fall of stocking the Missouri 
darn (Lake Sewell) with black bass. The yellow perch 
which were planted there a few years ago have thrived 
so marvelously that the bass, which usually prosper 
under the same conditions will, I am sure, do well in this 
place. Geo. H. Bowers, U. S. Commissioner of Fish 
and Fisheries, assures me that I will get a liberal allow- 
ance of bass for this purpose next year. These fish will 
not be fry, but fish from three to five inches in length. 
The U. S. fish hatchery at Bozeman, under the able super - 
vision of Dr. Jas. A. Henshall, is accomplishing much to- 
.ward the restocking of our streams, but as the station 
must supply several States, the demand made upon it is 
much greater than the output, consequently only a lim- 
ited amount of its product can be used for this State. 
Three thousand fry from there were planted in the North 
Fork of the Sun River above the falls last month by the 
Augusta Chapter of the League of American Sportsmen. 
These fish were packed in forty miles on horseback and 
placed in waters where a fish was never known to exist, 
they having been unable to scale the falls. This is but a 
small number of fish, but it is expected that they will 
stock the hundreds of miles of beautiful waters in this 
section. 
Much other planting has been done this and other 
years past in different sections of the State, and the fish- 
ing that we hav-e to-day is principally due to this. 
Montana with its thousands of miles of the very finest 
streams is greatly in need of a State hatchery. Most of 
the States have one or more such institutions. Of the 
Northwestern States, Washington has 15, Wyoming 2, 
Wisconsin 2, Minnesota i. I am sure that a suitable site 
for such an institution would be donated by some public 
spirited sportsman; the cost of constructing the building 
would not be great, and only a small appropriation would 
be necessary for its maintenance. 
The non-resident license law has been very generally 
obeyed, as near as I can ascertain, and in cases where it 
has not, we have had good success in apprehending the 
violators. 
Many people seem to think this law unjust, but I be- 
lieve it fair in every way. If the non-resident wishes to 
come here and hunt, and enjoy the privileges of killing 
cur game, he should be made to contribute to the support 
of its protection and propagation. As the resident is 
taxed for this purpose, the visitor, who has no interest in 
the State other than hunting, should be made to pay also. 
I regret to have to call your attention to the many acci- 
dents while hunting, caused by careless hunters. Mon- 
tana has been very fortunate in the past in this regard, 
but this year we are not so lucky. So far this season 
four persons have been shot, being mistaken for game. 
So much of this criminal carelessness has happened in 
the last few years that Maine, Wisconsin and other 
States have passed laws making the shooting of human 
beings while hunting a penitentiary offence. I believe 
this a wise idea, as it would have the tendency to make 
the hunter be certain at what he is shooting. It would 
be well to have a law of this kind in our State. 
Among the many hard propositions with which we 
have to deal is the "Indian question." I have made 
mention of this in my previous reports. They give us 
more trouble than any other class of people, and we are 
almost helpless in the matter. We receive hundreds of 
reports and letters about Indians killing game, many peo- 
ple thinking that our resident Indians have no right to 
hunt even in the open season; but in this ide'a they are 
wrong, as the Indian living upon a reservation in this 
State has just as much right to hunt at such times as a 
white man. In the case of the foreign or non-resident 
Indian we can convict him under the non-resident license 
law if we can catch him ; this is very hard to do, for 
they are just sharp enough, if Crees, Piegans, Kootenais 
or other foreign Indians, to always be "Flatheads or 
Crows," when asked to what tribe they belong, and as 
they "are not branded" they all leok alike. 
I am glad to report that their depredations are becom- 
ing fewer each jrear. Th» » due to some extent to the 
mfluence of the different Indian Agents, who do all in 
their power to educate and inform their Indians in re- 
gard to the game laws, and make every effort to have 
them obeyed. The agents are many times blamed for 
the acts of the Indians under their charge when in fact 
they are powerless to prevent them in most cases. The 
Indian Agent has a few troubles of his own, of which 
the ordinary citizen has no conception, and it is well 
to take these things into consideration first before criti- 
cising the agent too severely. 
It is to be hoped that in the near future some united 
action may be taken by all the States having Indians 
within their borders, whereby some solution may be had, 
and the Indian compelled to obey the game laws the same 
as other laws. The Government is spending millions of 
dollars to clothe and feed them, and there is no good 
excuse for the Indian to go out and slaughter the game 
as well as everything he finds running wild. 
We have many "wild goose" chases" that are the cause 
of a deputy making many long and expensive trips, only 
to find when he arrives at the place that the report is 
without foundation. Many people do not realize that the 
report they bring in is liable to send a man on a fruitless 
chase of a hundred miles and cause him a great deal 
of unnecessary expense. They are thoughtless in this 
respect, and do not stop to think before making these 
reports, whether there is any ground for making them; 
and in a great many cases they jump at conclusions that 
because there were depredations being committed last 
year, or year before, that it is going on now. 
It is to be hoped that people will in the future be more 
careful in this respect. They should be sure that there 
is some evidence before being so positive when reporting 
these matters. 
The man with a "grievance against his neighbor" is 
still in the land. . We get letters from him each week, 
in which he wants us to arrest the man at once and put 
him in jail. When we sift the matter down we usually 
find that there has been trouble between them, and that 
he wants ,this department to help him get even. 
It is well to mention here that on July 20 of this year 
there met with Major John Pitcher at Mammoth Hot 
Springs eight representatives of the Northwestern States, 
and organized the "National Association of Game and 
Fish Wardens and Commissioners," of which the follow- 
ing officers were elected: President, W. F. Scott, Mon- 
tana; First Vice-President, Chas. W. Harris, Colorado; 
Second Vice-President, John Sharp, Utah; Secretary, 
H. G. Smith, Minnesota; member of Executive Board, 
Sam F. Fullef-ton, Minnesota. 
The_ purpose of this organization is to promote co- 
operation bet\veen States,' thereby assisting each other in 
the enforcement of the;, laws. A meeting will be held an- 
nually at Mammoth Hot Springs, the next meeting being 
June 20, 1903. 
Through the courtesy of Major Pitcher the representa- 
tives were given a .trip, through, the Park. 
Deer Hounding. 
Editor Forest and -Stream:^. 
With all , that .has been said against hounding deer, 
and "I appreciate that the weight of reason and evi- 
dence is against such a practice, my personal observa- 
tion in' many trips to,/the Maine woods has made me 
believe that if dogging could be properly controlled 
(which would be a-Lmighty hard thing to do, I ad- 
mit) it .is unquestionably the .'must humane way in 
which, to"" secure venison. Years' ago, although the law 
against dogging deer was on_ Maine's statute books, 
it was not enforced, and was practically a dead let- 
ter. I venture to assert that in those days fewer 
wounded deer roamed the woods and suffered, often 
dying.; finally in "^secluded, thickets and swamps — than 
do in these later days when the laws are more thor- 
oughly administered. Many people claim that dogging 
deer is unsportsmanlike. For myself, I would much 
prefer to never hunt a deer rather than to wound one, 
even slightly, and have him escape to suffer and per- 
haps die. Although deer are game animals and run 
wild, when it comes to hurting them we ought to 
minimize their suffering, and if they must be killed, do 
it in the surest and most expeditious manner possible. 
LTnder the present laws, which are doubtless the most 
expedient in many ways, I know, for a fact, that many 
deer are wounded and suffer for hours and days be- 
fore they, finally die, after having escaped the hunters 
who inflicted their injuries. In my life I have seen 
something of dogging deer, and among the quite large 
number I have seen so hunted in days gone by I 
never knew of but one escaping after being first 
wounded, and that one was driven to water again with- 
in ten minutes and killed. Possibly the people I have 
seen dog deer were of a better stamp than the average 
sportsman, but I am certain those men were more 
than satisfied with one deer to a man, and never 
thought of trying to get all the game they possibly 
could during their stay in the woods. Indeed, these 
same men now visit the Maine woods annually, and 
are perfectly satisfied if they have one or two saddles 
of venison hanging up in camp, enough to supply the 
table for the party during their sta}^ These men have 
visited Maine annually for many years, and have per-, 
haps got over the first enthusiasm wbich makes the 
average hunter want to shoot everything within a 
radius of fifty miles of his camp. But I venture to say 
that a large share of city sportsmen, who are regular 
visitants of the game regions, feel and act in much the 
same way. This dissertation is not made in the hope 
of influencing sentiment in favor of a law for dogging 
deer at all, but simply in the way of reminiscence and 
information. Doubtless a statute allowing the dogging 
of deer in Maine would be unwise, especially in rela- 
tion to a large part of her own inhabitants, who have 
always, and do to this day, break the game laws of 
their own domain flagrantly and principally for the 
sake of pecuniary gain, selling most of their game to 
the market men of their cities. E. M. W. 
Spbingfibld, Mass. 
All communications intended for Forest and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 
New York, and not to any individual conaeeted with the paper- 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST, 
Texas Edging Toward the Plank, 
Jan. 30. — Texas is edging toward the Forest and 
Stream pjank, and if she is not ready to stop the sale 
• of gaine, is at least going to try to qualify its sale, and 
to limit the legal bag. The inordinate greed of mar- 
ket shooters and game hogs has caused the introduction 
of a very interesting game bill, which was offered yes- 
terday at Austin by representatives Hudspeth, Sevier, 
Gr ay and Timon, and which stands a fair show of pas- 
sage at this session. Barring a too liberal application of 
the old and pestiferous county exemption plea, this bill, 
if it should become a law, would do much toward regu- 
lating the practice which now threatens to destroy the 
game of the Lone Star State. It would be a rare vindi- 
cation of this great commonwealth could she thus re- 
buke the carping and somewhat unrighteous North, 
which does not like to see a Texas man kill a duck, 
since that removes the duck from calculations of the 
Northern spring shooter. The text of the bill is as 
follows: 
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, that 
Sections 2, 5 and 6 of Chapter 149 of the general laws of Texas, 
passed by the twenty-fifth Legislature, approved May 27, 1897, be, 
and the same are, hereby amended so as to hereafter read as 
follows, to-wit: 
Section 2. Whoever sells or offers for sale, or has in his 
possession for the purpose of sale, or whoever shall purchase or 
have in his possession after purchase, any wild deer or antelope 
killed in this State, or the carcass thereof, or the hide thereof, or 
the antlers thereof, or whoever shall sell or offer for sale, or have 
in his possession for the purpose of sale, or whoever shall or have 
in his possession after purchase, any of the game mentioned in 
Section 1 of this act, killed or taken within this State, shall be 
guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be 
fined in any sum, not less than |10 nor more than |100. Provided, 
That the sale and purchase of the game birds mentioned in Sec. 
1 of this act, shall not be unlawful when such sale or purchase 
is made in the county where such game birds were taken or killed. 
Provided, That any person who shall kill more than twenty-five 
wild ducks, or twenty-five wild geese, or thirty quail, or thirty 
partridges in one day, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, 
and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not less 
than $10 nor more than $100. 
Sec. 5. It shall be unlawful for any person to kill, take or 
destroy any wild Mongolian or English pheasants, or antelope, or 
Rocky Mountain sheep, for the space of five years, next after this 
act takes effect, and any person violating the provisions hereof 
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction 
thereof shall be fined in any sum not less than $10, nor more than 
$100. 
Sec. 6. It shall be unlawful for any person to kill, ensnare or 
entrap, or in any way to destroy any wild deer in the period of 
time embraced between the 1st day of January and the 1st day 
of November in each year; Provided, That no one shall kill more 
than six wild deer in the period of time embraced between the 
1st day of November and the 1st day of January of each year, or 
any wild turkeys in the period of time embraced between the 1st 
day of April and the 1st day of September in each year, or any 
prairie chickens (pinnated grouse) in the period of time embraced 
between the 1st day of February and the 1st day of August of 
each year, or any quail or partridges within the period of time 
embraced between the 15th day of March and the 1st day of 
October in each year; and it shall be unlawful for any person at 
any time to hunt deer or any game by the aid of what is com- 
monly known as a hunting lamp or lantern, or any other light 
used for the purpose of hunting at night; and after the lapse of 
five years next after this act takes effect, it shall be unlawful for 
any person to kill, ensnare, entrap or in any way destroy any 
wild antelope in the period of time embraced between the 1st day of 
January and the 1st day of November in each year, or any Mon- 
golian or English pheasants in the period of time embraced be- 
tween the 1st day of February and the 1st day of August in each 
year, and the violation of any provision of this section shall be 
considered a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, the person 
offending shall be fined in any sum not less than SIO nor more 
than $100. 
Market Shootiag atd the Law in Texas. 
Mention has already been made in these columns 
of the movement on the part of Texas sportsmen to 
cut off altogether or to greatly limit the sale of ducks, 
and it has been explained that this movement is in 
part due to the feeling of resentment which exists re- 
garding the big Moody canvasback reserve near Gal- 
veston. Additional facts in relation to this action, and 
new details regarding the history and operation of this 
now famous shooting preserve are to be found in a 
private letter received in San Antonio, and from an 
able and conservative sportsman resident in another 
Texas city, who has been instrumental in the inaugur- 
ation of the Texas campaign, whose motto is "Stop the 
sale of game." If this motto shall finally prevail in 
Texas, the wisdom of the once derided slogan of the 
Forest and Stream will indeed be more than vindi- 
cated, and it will have earned a place among those ex- 
amples of foresight which border upon prophecy. The 
letter of the gentleman mentioned follows in part be- 
low : 
"There is one feature about the Moody Lake busi- 
ness which possibly is not generally known. When he 
got his patent he was one of a number who were en- 
deavoring to get a patent for the purpose of making 
a game preserve in the strictest sense. Such men as 
E. S. Flint and N. Weekes were at the head of it, 
who would no more sell a duck than they would steal 
a hog. I say, upon the authority of these gentlemen 
Col. Moody was deputized to attend to the details 
about getting the patent. He did get it, through Gov. 
Hogg, who used to be a frequent visitor at the lake; 
and when he got the patent he repudiated the agree- 
ment with the gentlemen sportsmen, and at once 
added the pot-hunting industry to his various cotton 
and banking enterprises, excluding true sportsmen, 
and shipping such an amount of wild game every sea- 
son as is almost incredible. Nobody knows exactly 
how much he ships, because the doings at Lake Sur- 
prise are kept as secret as possible. 
"I hunted there late in the '70s, before Moody knew 
there was such a place, and know every foot of that 
country. The bottom of the lake is below the level 
of the bay near by, and of course it was the baldest 
falsehood to say that the lake could be drained; in fact, 
it was never the intention to drain it, or to do any- 
thing else with it than put it to its present uses, name- 
ly, to turn it into a slaughter pen for the destruction 
of game, nominally the property of the State. 
"I was informed that in 1897, when the game law was 
passed, the proviso permitting Moody to kill and ship 
ducks North was inserted by means of his influence; 
in fact, the amount such influence cost was freely dis- 
cussed on the streets here. I trust the Legislature this 
time can not be so influenced. He can well afford, 
however, to pay many thousands of dollars to keep 
tUe game laws in shape for him to destroy the wild 
