140 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Feb. I, 1913 
gone to the seventy-five salaried and 700 un¬ 
salaried dei)uties of the Commission, and to 
district attorneys, county clerks, judicial officers, 
local peace officers, members of the Legislature, 
and to others particularly interested in fish and 
game laws and able to unravel legal verbiage. 
Of notices 4, 5, 6, 3.150 have been posted 
in the localities where plantings of game have 
been made. They have probably served a good 
purpose. 
With the idea of acquainting the sportsman 
with the appearance of the ring-neck pheasant, 
a reproduction of one of Louis Agassiz Fuertes' 
drawings has licen used on the hack of this 
season’s license. About 187,000 licenses have 
been printed to date, of which possibly 150,000 
will be sold and seen by the hunters before the 
first of ne.xt July. 
In addition to these “lessons and reminders 
to the public," a constant- campaign of educa¬ 
tion is kept up through the press of the State, 
and by the work of deputies and special lec¬ 
turers. A manual for public school teachers, 
dealing with methods of teaching bird, mammal 
and fish conservation, has been prepared by the 
Commission and is being very generally adopted 
throughout the State. Circulars and statements 
are issued at frequent periods and sent every¬ 
where likely to do good. 
An immense amount of educational work 
has also been done in this State by the numer¬ 
ous societies and organizations interested in fish 
and game preservation and allied subjects. At 
the present time "the great b'ish and Game Pro¬ 
tective Association," with a membership of about 
15,000, is promising to revolutionize legislation 
and subsequent law enforcement. 
I hope the length of this communication 
may not preclude the possibility of its publica¬ 
tion in an early number of Forest and Stream, 
and that the statements contained therein and 
the “exhibits" separately submitted may be of 
\alue to someone. Ernest Schaeffle, 
Sec’y California Fish and Game Com. 
Antelope in Wyoming. 
Wolf, Wyo., Dec. 4.— Editor Forest and 
Stream; In your issue of Nov. 30 is a letter 
from D. F. Hudson, State Game Warden of 
Wyoming, which reports antelope as gradually 
increasing "from all reports” and lefers to moun¬ 
tain sheep as protected animals. The Yellow¬ 
stone Park has been for some years a fine point 
in which to study the increase or decrease of the 
antelope. After the deep snow and cold weather 
through the Green River country about six or 
seven years ago, the scarcity and scattered 
bunches left, seemed to melt away steadily. 
The coyote, golden eagle, poacher, sheep 
herder and other game butchers all quit union 
hours and worked over time when antelope were 
in range. I have visited Jackson's Hole nearly 
every fall for many years, and in 1911 my entire 
party only saw four antelope (all does) in over 
three weeks. The Yellowstone Park report, 
issued three or four years since, gave a count 
of over 1,500 antelope on the alfalfa field at 
Gardiner, Mont. 
Shortly after this count was made, most of 
the herd crossed the State line between Montana 
and the park, but very few ever recrossed it. 
In the spring of 1911 I saw a few antelope on 
the alfalfa about March, and think the superin¬ 
tendent's report gave about 400 in the park, 
which I believe was a close count. 1 was in 
Gardiner several times during May, June, July 
and all of .August, 1912, during which last month 
I went through the park, going by Norris, Lower 
and Upper Basins to Jackson Hole and return¬ 
ing by the outlet of Yellowstone Lake over Mt. 
Washburn, up Lamar River to the buffalo herd 
and hack by Blacktail Creek to the Mammoth 
Hot Si)rings and Gardiner. 
Below Mt. Washburn on Antelope Creek, 
which was a famous antelope range until within 
three or four years, we saw no antelope; in fact, 
no living thing hut a coyote and a buzzard. 
On Slough Creek we saw a single buck, and 
just a mile lielow the Rose Creek buffalo corral 
saw one sm.'dl bunch of fifteen or twenty, where 
two years before, within 1,000 yards of the 
same spot, I counted over eighty antelope. 
The Gardiner alfalfa field was deserted. My 
count there was like the parson's round-up of 
sinners—“If there had been another, it would 
have made one.’’ The soldiers at the park en¬ 
trance and Gardiner people living across the 
street from the field reported seeing one or two 
antelope this spring, but at this time the field 
was deserted. I hope that the reports given 
Mr. Hudson are correct, but fear that they are 
too optimistic. 
As to the mountain sheep, they are protected 
in the Big Horn Mountains, but not west of the 
Big Horn River. 
A small bunch of sheep are reported to use 
in the Cloud Peak country. In the north end 
of Big Horns, a few sheep were ranging when 
the law was passed, protecting them until 1915. 
In 1909, near the noted Medicine Wheel, I saw 
a ram track nearly as large as a yearling steer 
track, but I fear that he was taken in or pos¬ 
sibly died a natural death. 
The mule deer have been quite plenty on 
the mountains, and many have been killed. I 
know of seven bucks being killed by five men 
in less than a week, all within a circle of less 
than five miles diameter, and a hunter told me 
that seventy-five to one hundred deer, bucks, 
does and fawns, had been killed in the head of 
Dry Fork of the Little Horn. He also says that 
country is now bare of game as the hind side 
of a tombstone. 
We have too long an open season in Wyo¬ 
ming. Sept. I to Nov. 30, inclusive, gives ninety- 
one days; at least thirty days too much. 
If the spring duck shooting and killing of 
does and fawns can be stopped, we may expect 
good sport for years to come, with both ducks 
and deer, but if continued, hunters will soon be 
forced to practice at blue rocks and targets. 
I have just heard from reliable people in 
the Hole that this fall has been so fine, and 
with so little snow, that the elk are in the hills 
mostly instead of on the feeding grounds near 
Jackson and all are in fine condition. (Letter 
was written Nov. 25.) 
Ducks and grouse have been rather scarce 
this season. The ducks have either blazed a 
new trail over Wyoming or are killed off in 
spring. Sage grouse are protected by law until 
A BULL ELK IN JACKSON’s HOLE, WYOMING. 
