REVENUE FROM WILD GAME 
131 
South the White-Tailed Deer of the North nec- 
essarily becomes a small or inferior animal. A 
collection of more than one hundred pairs of 
antlers from Texas, recently inspected by the 
writer, contained a surprisingly high percentage 
of large and heavy specimens, fully equal in 
length, spread and weight to the best examples 
from Montana, Minnesota and Maine. 
Wild Game as a Source of Revenue. — All 
persons who pay state taxes in states or terri- 
tories inhabited by “big game,” and game fishes, 
will do well to bear in mind that under certain 
conditions wild animal life can be made an 
important and legitimate source of revenue. 
The United States Supreme Court has decided 
(Ward vs. Race Horse, 163 U. S. 507) that all 
wild game on unoccupied lands is the prop- 
erty of the state, and that even the national 
government may not, either by treaty with Ind- 
ians, or in any other manner save actual seques- 
tration, convey any rights or privileges affecting 
it adversely. 
The states of New York and Maine long since 
discovered that their wild deer constituted val- 
uable state property, and both entered seriously 
upon the task of preserving them from the anni- 
hilation that everywhere follows swiftly upon 
the heels of non-protection. New York elected 
to preserve the great Adirondack wilderness as 
a free hunting-ground for her citizens. Maine, 
with perfectly proper thrift, decided that her 
game should not only pay the cost of its preser- 
vation, but also be made for her citizens a legiti- 
mate source of annual income. All guides must 
be licensed by the state, no visitor may hunt 
without a guide, and every non-resident hunter 
must procure a license, at a cost of $15. This 
permits the killing of one bull moose and two 
deer, but no caribou, nor female moose. 
As a result of the game and fish laws of 
Maine that state becomes every autumn a vast 
hunting-ground, visited by perhaps ten thousand 
sportsmen who desire to fish, or to procure deer 
or moose in their haunts. The army of recre- 
ationists annually expends within that state a 
total sum which is usually estimated at one mill- 
ion dollars, or more. And yet, the supply of 
deer is maintained so successfully that to-day 
there are in Maine a greater number of deer than 
anywhere else in the United States, unless it be 
in the Adirondacks. 
The records of the Maine railways show ac- 
curately the number of White-Tailed Deer trans- 
ported by them annually for hunters leaving the 
state, and afford a very fair index of the abun- 
dance of the species. The following are the 
figures for the last nine years: 
1894 1,001 
1895 1,581 
1896 2,245 
1897 2,940 
1898 3,377 
1899 3,379 
1900 3,756 
1901 3,882 
1902 4,495 
Total 26,656 
Of course these figures do not take into ac- 
count the great number of deer that are killed 
and consumed in camp, or by residents of the 
state who live in or near the great hunting 
grounds. The whole number of deer in Maine 
is roughly estimated at 100,000, and the total 
number killed annually at between 15,000 and 
20 , 000 . 
The Flat-Horned Deer. 
The Caribou. — In general terms it may be 
stated that a caribou (pronounced car'ry-boo) 
is a wild deer-like animal, which bears a general 
REMARKABLE 
FREAK " ANTLERS OF WHITE- 
TAILED DEER. 
Total number of points, 78. Owned by Albert 
Friedrich, San Antonio, Texas. 
