FOREST AND STREAM 
163 
and such clubs and their members know practical¬ 
ly nothing of hunting in the Adirondacks. As one 
member of the new organization expressed it at 
the meeting: ‘The only deer ever seen by the 
members of the clubs in the western part of the 
State are confined in the Zoo at Buffalo.’ The 
League went on record as absolutely approved 
to the present Buck Law, and in favor of a law 
which will limit the number of deer killed in 
any season to one for each person, the hunter 
being permitted to kill either buck or doe.” 
By a strange coincidence too, this resolution of 
the new club, representing as it does, more than 
eleven clubs and more than 1,000 sportsmen, is 
in exact line with the farmer’s suggestion pub¬ 
lished in Forest and Stream and which Mr. Chase 
is pleased to designate as “rot.” 
To show further the great interest now being 
taken in this subject here, the Lake Champlain 
Valley Forest Fish and Game Club was organiz¬ 
ed at Port Henry last Thursday. Its president is 
Hon. Walter Crafts Witherbee, former Collector 
of the Port at Plattsburgh, who has for many 
years taken a great interest in the propagation 
and planting of game fishes in Lake Champlain 
and its tributary trout streams. It is intended to 
build up a strong membership by seeking for 
members in each village in Essex County, and to 
accomplish extensive work in the preservation 
and propagation of game. This club is a mem¬ 
ber of the above-mentioned Adirondack League, 
and will act as host at an early meeting of that 
organization at Port Henry. 
It would seem, therefore, that the residents of 
our section are about to take a step which even 
Mr. Chase himself admits might be a good one; 
namely, to allow one mature deer, buck or doe, 
to each licensed hunter, next year, to see if this 
present waste of female deer and fawns cannot 
be avoided. 
PETER FLINT. 
A DESTRUCTIVE LAW. 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Feb. i, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
Having noticed in the January number of 
Forest and Stream an article by Mr. Chase of 
Vermont regarding the “buck law” as we call if 
in New York state, I take it that his observance 
of the deer has been either not at all, or in some 
private preserve or park. The writer, although he 
never killed a deer, has been in the deer country 
in the Adirondacks more than once, and while 
there observed the animals in their wild state 
and also investigated and mingled with the guides, 
who depend upon the deer hunters for a liveli¬ 
hood during the hunting season. Without any 
exceptions, I have found that the “buck law” is 
looked upon by the natives as the most destruc¬ 
tive that has ever been handed over. How many 
wild deer has Mr. Chase ever been able to tell 
had horns three inches long; how many points, 
or whether the deer had horns at all or not? 
I’ll wager not one in twenty-five. From a num¬ 
ber of guides I have mingled with, I have yet 
to find one who will admit that any person can 
tell a buck from a doe when running through 
the woods. They all agree that when a deer is 
running through the woods, said deer holds its 
nose straight out, so that the head, neck and 
back are in line and if the animal has horns, they 
are astride the neck so that it is impossible to 
see them. I have discovered the same character¬ 
istics among the wild deer and was always un¬ 
able to tell bucks from does, when running. 
1 think that it is very safe to say that there is 
not one in ten deer seen stationary where it is 
possible to see the head of the animal. It 
nearly always happens that the animal is facing 
away from the hunter or else the head is behind 
some obstruction. If one will spend some time 
in the woods among the wild deer, and give same 
his personal attention, he will be able to under¬ 
stand the foolishness of the ‘‘buck law” as we 
who have been in the wilds, have found out. 
Nearly all hunters and guides will agree that the 
only sure way to tell a buck with three inch 
horns is to run said deer to water or else kill 
Too Young to Shoot. 
the deer and then make the inspection; and I’m 
sorry to say that is what they are doing. There 
is more deer meat wasted by being shot and 
then left to rot because it was a doe, than there 
are bucks taken out of the woods or consumed 
while camping. 
The only way to protect the deer so that we 
will have any in the future, will be to make it 
one deer only to a hunter, either buck or doe, 
and the hunting season not to exceed one month, 
November or from the middle of October to the 
middle of November, and enforce the law. 
The deer are growing scarcer than they were 
before the buck law was put in force and not 
only the bucks but the does, for the simple rea¬ 
son that at least ninety-nine out of one hundred 
hunters, guides included, will kill a running deer 
or one that they can not see the head of, rather 
than lose the chance of getting a buck; and 
if, after killing the animal, it proves to be a doe, 
which about half of them are, it is left to rot or 
is cut up and brought in at night, but which 
ever it may be, the doe doesn’t count and the 
same thing is done over again until the buck is 
killed. 
VAN. 
Exeter, Cal., January 20, 1915. 
Editor Forest and Steam: 
In the January issue of your good magazine I 
read the article on the “Extermination of Bucks 
Threatened.” In this article, Mr. Chase seems 
to express his opinion of the guides and woods¬ 
men. He seems to think the man that has 
hunted all his life doesn’t know anything about 
making game laws or anything else, as far as 
that goes. He talks the least bit like he might 
be a theorist (naturalist) himself. 
Out here in California we are allowed two 
bucks a season. The law is made to suit the 
sport. The two open months are July and Au¬ 
gust. The right time for the deer season is 
September and October. But the city sports¬ 
man cannot get away from his business except 
m July or August. Mr. Chase seems to think 
>t an outright game hog that wants more than 
one deer a season. One buck a season would 
do for the city hunter, who is hunting for horns, 
and not for the meat to live on. I don’t exactly 
call myself a game hog. Out here we take cattle 
to the mountains in the summer to save the feed 
in the valley. We have to take all our things 
and grub on pack animals. The only meat we 
can take is bacon or ham. When we get there, 
fresh meat is a very desirable article. We go 
out and kill a buck. He will last us a long 
time for we do not waste any. We try to keep 
fresh meat all the time but we never kill over 
the limit and seldom do we kill the limit, for we 
do not need it. 
Then comes the city man with his automatic 
elephant gun. He sees a band of deer, so turns 
loose his automatic. He may hit half a dozen 
before they get over the hill (most likely more 
does than bucks, for there are more of the 
former), but the bullet not entering a fatal spot 
does not drop them right away. As long as this 
city hunter doesn’t see any fall he thinks he has 
missed, so goes on to find and slaughter another 
band. 
Another thing—it seems to me (not saying 
that I have an extra quick eye) that the 
woodsman and guide who has spent all his life 
m the woods ought to have the least bit 
keener eyes than the man who learned all he 
knows at college. So to save the deer is to teach 
the city hunter how to hunt. 
EMMETT ANDERSON. 
SAID THE PTIMID PTARMIGAN. 
O, I never shall go near a pfarm again! 
For a dog, man, and gun 
Made me so fly and run 
That I thought life would never hold pcharm 
again.” 
—BLANCHE ELIZABETH WADE. 
