Ai’kil 13, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
465 
Game in Alaska 
to the conclusion that this was another posse in 
pursuit of the horse thieves, and with the su¬ 
preme freshness of the youthful tenderfoot, I 
saluted them with, “The rest of the gang has 
gotten ahead of you and probably has the 
greasers rounded up by this time.” 
The men crowded around me, and feeling de¬ 
cidedly proud to have excited their interest, I 
permitted my assininity to purl on: “You are 
a nice lot of thief takers to let the other fellows 
go in and bag the game while you were snor¬ 
ing within gun shot of them,” and I put on an 
expression of contempt. 
“What in thunder are you trying to say?” said 
the fat leader. “If yo’ know how to talk United 
States, tell us wot yer drivin’ at, an’ tell it 
quick.” 
There was something in the glint of his eye 
that told me I’d better not trifle with him, and 
I related frankly my experience of the night. 
The look with which he and his companions re¬ 
garded me, as I concluded my narrative with a 
repetition of my conviction that the posse had 
no doubt taken the thieves ere then, caused a 
light to dawn upon my mind, especially as my 
cogitations about the elk meat recurred to me. 
“Do you think those fellows were frauds?” I 
ventured to ask. 
“Frauds! Why, ye half-baked idiot, them’s 
the very chaps we’re after, an’ have chased ’em 
from ’way beyond the Verdegris; that’s Doc 
James’ gang, the slickest team ’t ever broke out 
a pack 0’ bronchos.” 
The man then showed me his badge, bearing 
the inscription, “U. S. Deputy Marshal.” And 
I think he was a bit sorry for me when he saw 
how I took his information to heart. But the 
others guyed me most unmercifully. He seemed 
to be metaphorically kicking himself as he re¬ 
flected on how he and his men had spent the 
night within such close proximity to the fugi¬ 
tives and still permitted them to escape. 
The beauties of the prairie appealed to me in 
vain that day. I believe I was the most dejected 
man in all Kansas as I rode without regard to 
trail or direction. I left Skeezik to himself 
while I pondered over and over the events of 
the morning. I was mentally very sore, and my 
opinion of myself was infinitesimally small. We 
had to camp that and the succeeding night. 
Shortly before dusk on the evening of the third 
day I came to the Osage forest, and soon after 
leaving the Osage bottoms and their luxuriant 
vegetation, I struck the old historic Santa Fe 
trail, for many years the commercial route from 
the Mississippi Valley to Mexico. At this time 
it was followed by the drivers of the great 
“prairie schooners,” conveying settlers from the 
East to new homes in the Southwest. The trail 
had broadened to a width of several rods by 
teams taking new tracks to avoid the ruts made 
by hundreds of previous teams. On the high 
ridges between the wheel ruts a free surface 
made fine equestrian paths, along which I gal¬ 
loped gaily. I encountered stockmen’s ranches 
at occasional intervals, then I emerged from the 
habitable zone upon the Great American Desert 
of Mitchel’s Geography, about which I studied 
in my early school days. If Mitchel had ever 
stood on the crest of a certain bluff, 125 miles 
southwesterly of Council Grove, and permitted 
his eyes free scope, the desert section of his 
geography would have been omitted. 
[to be continued.] 
I N his annual report, Walter E. Clark, the 
Governor of Alaska, gives the following re¬ 
view of the game law of that Territory: 
By careful attention to the various provisions 
of the law and the regulations thereunder, and 
by the appointment of additional wardens, the 
administration of the Alaska game law has been 
somewhat improved during the last year. An¬ 
other year's experience under the new law, how¬ 
ever, has emphasized the inadaptability of cer¬ 
tain provisions and the lack of certain needed 
provisions of the most obvious nature. Exten¬ 
sive modifications of the law are needed, and the 
failure to provide a better law renders the en¬ 
forcement of the act more difficult, because of 
the fact that public opinion does not wholly sup¬ 
port it. 
Game is still plentiful in almost all parts of 
Alaska. This statement applies to both animals 
and birds. The consensus of opinion among the 
wardens, licensed guides and residents generally 
seems to be that moose are increasing in num¬ 
bers on the Kenai Peninsula, a fact of extra¬ 
ordinary significance when it is considered that 
this peninsula is the region selected by nearly 
all the non-resident hunters as their hunting 
ground. Caribou are increasing, it is believed, 
in the Alaska Peninsula, and in one or two of 
the larger islands immediately west of the pen:n- 
sula. 
On the other hand, there has unquestionably 
been an enormous decrease in the number of 
deer in Southeastern Alaska, a fact which is due 
principally to the abnormally heavy snowfall of 
the last two winters. The prohibition of market 
selling of venison in igii has proven to be a 
wise measure, and is supported by local public 
opinion. The prohibition should be extended by 
regulation to cover 1912. 
There has been no large general decrease in 
the supply of game birds. There has been an 
increase in many localities, and a decrease in 
several places in the near vicinity of populous 
settlements, and where forest and brush fires 
have swept over the country, killing young ptar¬ 
migan and grouse. 
Several gross violations of the law by resi¬ 
dents have been reported, and wherever possible 
prosecuted, but in general there has been a fair 
observance of the provisions of the game pro¬ 
tection act throughout the Territory. The people 
believe in the necessity of a game law, but cer¬ 
tain provisions of the act, such as the protection 
of the troublesome and dangerous brown bear, 
are universally condemned. 
Eight or ten convictions were secured during 
the year of persons guilty of violating the game 
law, and unquestionably a very large number of 
infractions were prevented by the known pres¬ 
ence of game wardens in the several regions. 
Big-game hunters from the States and from 
foreign countries visited the Alaska game re¬ 
gions in considerable numbers last year, but dur¬ 
ing the fall hunting season of 1911 the number 
has been somewhat smaller. Some of the visit¬ 
ing sportsmen complain of the expensiveness of 
hunting in Alaska, but the license fee of $50, 
which covers the shipment of many trophies, is 
considered by this office to be moderate, and the 
provision of the law, which requires hunters to 
employ licensed guides on the Kenai Peninsula, 
cannot be regarded as unjust. 
The number of paid game wardens now em¬ 
ployed is seven. In addition to these are four 
wardens who serve as such without compensa¬ 
tion, their services being incidental to the per¬ 
formance of their regular duties as officers or 
employes of the Bureau of Forestry. The in¬ 
crease in the game protection appropriation from 
$10,000 to $15,000 for the current year has al¬ 
ready proven beneficial, since it has permitted 
the employment of more wardens, and has in¬ 
creased the efficiency of all the wardens by per¬ 
mitting them to travel more freely in regions 
where the expenses of transportation and sub¬ 
sistence are necessarily very high. It is earn¬ 
estly urged that the appropriation of $15,000 be 
renewed for the fiscal year 1913- 
There are now twenty-four resident licensed 
guides on the Kenai Peninsula. No encourage¬ 
ment has been extended to other residents to 
apply for appointment, for the reason that an 
effort is being made by this office to create an 
esprit de corps among the guides by encourag¬ 
ing them to make the taking out of hunting 
parties a regular business. The number already 
licensed exceeds the demand for guides each 
year by visiting hunters. A few applications for 
guide licenses have been refused on the ground 
that the applicants were not qualified by char¬ 
acter or efficiency. Henceforth the policy will 
be pursued of appointing every person who may 
apply, provided he is of good character, has not 
been guilty of violating the game law himself, 
and is otherwise not notoriously disqualified. 
Severe complaints have recently been made by 
several visiting hunters that the licensed guides 
are as a class lacking in local knowledge of the 
country, and that they are generally inefficient. 
These and other charges will probably not be 
sustained wholly by the investigation now being 
carried on by this office. 
The. provision of the game law which makes 
a close season for brown bear should be re¬ 
pealed. The least that can be said of the legal 
protection of brown bear in Alaska is that it is 
an absurdity. If this protection is continued, 
the menace to human life will be still more seri¬ 
ous, and agriculture and stock raising in some 
of the most favored regions in the Territory will 
be discouraged. The superintendent of the Gov¬ 
ernment’s experimental stock farm on Kodiak 
Island makes a strong appeal for the protection 
of settlers and live stock against the ravages of 
brown bears, declaring that it has become a ques¬ 
tion whether we shall have a game preserve or 
a great agricultural and stock-raising region on 
Kodiak Island. The existence of the brown bear 
protective feature of the law, which has nothing 
whatever to commend it, is so strongly opposed 
by the residents of the Kenai and Alaska penin¬ 
sulas that the enforcement of the just provisions 
of the law is rendered more difficult. 
One of the inequalities of the present law is 
that provision of Section 5, which permits the 
issuance of only one game-shipping license to 
any one person in any one year. Among several 
illustrations which might be given of the unjust 
consequences of this provision, it may be suf- 
{Continiied on page 484.) 
