Dec. i, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
LOCKED DEER HORNS. 
of affairs it is hard to imagine, but such is one 
phase of the law. 
“Indians, Eskimo, miners, explorers or travel¬ 
ers, when on a journey” are permitted to kill 
what game they consider necessary for food 
or clothing. It might be presented that a hunter 
traversing a long trail across Alaska would be 
classed under one of the last two headings here 
named. But such is not the case, according to 
the ruling of a certain district commissioner who 
adjudicated on some memorable trials held 
under the game laws in 1903, at Kenai and 
Seldovia. in the Cook’s Inlet District. Various 
close seasons are appointed by the law, during 
which certain kinds of game are protected. This 
is also a wise measure, but again it only affects 
the sportsman, since all other residents in 
Alaska kill all kinds of game at any time of 
the year, claiming exemption from this last 
clause on the plea of needing food, etc. Neither 
are they any respecters of age or sex in this in¬ 
discriminate game killing. 
Fortunately for the game of Alaska, the 
native population is rapidly decreasing, owing 
to the introduction of such things as bad 
liquors and strange diseases imported by the 
white man. But those natives who remain are 
all armed with cheap modern firearms, and un¬ 
doubtedly inflict far more destruction among the 
big game than did their forefathers when armed 
with primitive weapons. And as regards utterly 
wanton destruction of game, certain acts com¬ 
mitted by the Alaskan natives which have come 
under the writer’s personal notice, have over¬ 
shadowed anything which he has ever seen done 
even by savages in Africa. Under such con¬ 
ditions it may well be imagined what effect some 
big commercial enterprises have on the game 
of Alaska. One instance is sufficient. There is 
to-day, and has been for some time past, a rail¬ 
road in the course of construction across the 
Kenai Peninsula, which starts from the small 
town of Seward and runs right through the 
heart of what is possibly the finest game country 
in Alaska. Here there have been some six 
hundred men employed, and the consumption 
of moose meat by them has been enormous. 
Horns and skeletons of moose lie strewn to¬ 
day in the Kenai forests, grim relics of the 
march of civilization. The grand white Alaskan 
sheep (Ovis dalli ) also fall victims by summer 
and winter, to furnish a staple form of food in 
the miner’s and other camps thickly strewn 
along the Kenai Peninsula. And all this is daily 
taking place on a spot which is at present 
closed to a sportsman, who, when requesting a 
modest permit to export the horns of two moose 
from the peninsula, which he is legally entitled 
to shoot there is met with the courteous and 
inspiriting reply from Washington that “the 
authorities regret their inability to grant such 
permits, having regard to the fact that this dis¬ 
trict is so easy of access to sportsmen, and there 
is fear that a great influx of them may exter¬ 
minate the moose and sheep of Kenai, which 
the authorities are now doing all in their power 
to protect in that district.” As the writer hap¬ 
pens to be numbered among those who have 
practical experience, both past and present, of 
the modus operandi with regard to such pro¬ 
tection. he is inclined to be skeptical as to the 
ultimate beneficial results to the big game of 
Alaska. Furthermore, haying spent many 
months hunting in Alaska in 1903. and again 
spending part of the present year in that country 
when, owing to lack of permits, he was de¬ 
barred from hunting, not being inclined to kill 
game animals and leave them to rot, but amused 
himself by investigating the present system of 
administering the game laws of Alaska, he has 
been enabled to collect an amount of evidence 
which may be of use to fellow sportsmen and 
others in the future. 
For the benefit of the uninitiated, it may be 
stated that at present the Deputy FT. S. Marshals 
in Alaska are ex-officio game wardens in their 
own particular districts. Constant alterations 
in the wording of the game laws have so be¬ 
wildered these worthy men that they are hope¬ 
lessly muddled regarding the exact interpretation 
of the present law. Two instances will be 
sufficient to prove this. Formerly permits were 
required to export the skins of brown bears, 
but in 1904 a new clause was inserted which read 
as follows: “The skins of large brown bears, 
and bears of all kinds may be shipped from any 
point in Alaska without the formality of a permit. 
This refers to Section 5 of the game laws, and 
the prevailing idea among the marshals, and cus¬ 
tom house officers in Alaska to-day is that a 
man may kill and ship out as many brown bears 
as he likes. But they quite overlook the clause 
in Section 3, which limits any one person to the 
killing of four bears only in one season. . In 
consequence two fortunate hunters visited 
Alaska for bears recently. One of them secured 
and took out twelve bears, and the other hunt¬ 
ing on Kadiak Island in the spring of the pres¬ 
ent year, killed and took out eight brown bears. 
The amusing part of it is that these shipments 
were made with the full knowledge and consent 
of the officials, whose clear duty it was to seize 
the skins, under Section 3 of the game laws. 
Another curious misinterpretation exists re¬ 
lating to Unimak Island, situated at the west 
end of the Alaska Peninsula. By the act passed 
Aug. 22, 1903, “Killing caribou on the Alaska 
Peninsula west of Lake Uiamna is hereby pro- 
8 f 3 
LOCKED DEER HORNS. 
hibited prior to Sept. 1, 1906.” It is possible, 
when framing this act, that the authorities were 
unaware, or overlooked, the fact that caribou 
are found in large numbers on Unimak Island, 
to which place they easily swim across from the 
Alaska Peninsula. Consequently the officials in¬ 
terpreted the island of Unimak as being outside 
the prohibited area, and now allow caribou to 
be shot there. But again, in 1904, we find the 
following amendment added to the game laws: 
“The Peninsula District, comprising the Aleu¬ 
tian Islands, the Alaska and Kenai Peninsulas 
and adjacent islands.” Now it was clearly the 
intention of the act to protect all caribou in¬ 
habiting lands lying to the westward of Lake 
Uiamna, and had the prohibition clause above 
mentioned been worded “Killing caribou in the 
Alaska Peninsula District,” this would clearly 
have protected the caribou on Unimak Island. 
It can scarcely be believed that the authorities 
responsible for framing the game laws are 
ignorant of the fact that Unimak Island is one 
of the greatest strongholds of the caribou in 
the Peninsula District, therefore we may pre¬ 
sume they have merely overlooked the faulty 
wording of the above named clause. When visit¬ 
ing that locality in August of the present year, 
the writer was informed by the custodians of 
the law that he would be allowed to kill four 
caribou as usual on Unimak Island after the 
season opened on Sept. 1, if he desired to do so. 
His informants also added that a good many 
more would probably be killed by others who 
went to kill caribou there since the Alaska 
Peninsula had been closed. Shortly after this 
conversation, during an extended tour along the 
Alaska Peninsula, many other facts came to the 
LOCKED ELK HORNS. 
LOCKED ELK HORNS. 
