Jan. i, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
17 
fore the appropriation was expended and just 
as the warm weather began to melt the snow 
from the ground and open up patches of 
ground from which the elk began to crop dried 
grass. 
The State game warden reported that about 
15,000 elk were fed, and that at least 3,000 were 
saved from starvation. That winter was the 
most severe one in the history of the State, 
and even with the State’s assistance, the mor¬ 
tality among the elk was severe, five or six 
hundred having died. The mortality was 
greatest among the yearling calves and the old 
bulls. Some of the weakened animals became 
an easy prey to wolves and mountain lions, 
which thrived and grew fat upon the carcasses 
of these noble animals. 
In the future Wyoming will be better pre¬ 
pared for the care of these large herds of elk. 
From Michigan and Minnesota. 
Saginaw, Mich., Dec. 20 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Here is a curious item from a local 
paper: 
“The big gray timber wolf which, in the past 
six weeks has killed sheep valued at over $200 
in Brady and Bush townships, is dead. He 
fell victim to a bullet from the rifle of John 
Lotridge, the eighteen-year-old son of a farmer 
who had lost several sheep, early this morn¬ 
ing, about three miles north of Henderson. 
The hunt, which resulted in the wolf’s death, 
has been carried on for three days, the farmers 
to the number of thirty-five or forty going out 
each morning and searching for the animal 
all day. 
“On several former occasions big hunts were 
organized in an effort to get the sheep-killer, 
to which he belongs, six or eight members 
getting their limit in the forenoon, and hav¬ 
ing nothing to do but play cards in the after¬ 
noon. To-day he writes again as follows: 
“From accounts from all over the country 
there are more mallards than ever before. 
The south is the great slaughter house, and 
if they can once get the limit down in Texas 
and have somebody see that it is decently 
lived up to, there is no fear of a shortage. At 
the Big Lake Club, in Arkansas, the law for¬ 
bids the selling of birds, and yet poachers live 
in their blinds and the St. Louis commission 
merchants buy their mallards for 40 cents each, 
and the railroads ship them to that city for 
$1 per barrel, and a barrel holds about one 
hundred ducks. A friend of mine who be¬ 
longs to the club said he saw forty barrels go 
out in one shipment and that means about 
IN THE JACKSON* 
A Little Hay Saving a Few Elk from Starvation. 
HOLE COUNTRY. 
A Bull Elk in His Winter Coat of Fur and a Dead Elk in the Background. 
Last fall hay was stored at various places where 
it is most needed and most hard to procure in 
winter. If plans that are now under way can 
be carried into execution, experienced men will 
be employed to look after the interests of the 
elk. 
The Jackson’s Hole country cannot be 
reached by team except during a few months 
of the summer and early fall. No railroad 
penetrates the mountain passes. The game 
warden when going into the elk country in 
February had to travel over 600 miles by rail 
to St. Anthony, Idaho, and thence seventy-five 
miles by team and sleigh. In passing through 
the Teton Pass, he went for fifteen miles over 
six feet of hard snow. 
The big game season in Wyoming opens 
Sept. 25 and closes Nov. 30, during which sea¬ 
son two elk, two deer and one buck mountain 
sheep may be killed by any one hunting legally. 
Nonresident game licenses are issued by any 
justice of the peace at a cost of $50, and licensed 
guides are provided by the State to take hunt¬ 
ers through the game country, which in the 
hunting season is free of snow and one of the 
most picturesque parts of the Rocky Mountain 
region. W. A. Bartlett. 
but they were unsuccessful. During the time 
he has been in the vicinity the animal had a 
runway about six miles in length, and cov¬ 
ered much of the territory between the 
Saginaw county line and a point within four 
miles of this city. The carcass measures 
nearly nine feet from nose to tip of tail. 
For some weeks there have been items in the 
papers to the effect that a large wolf was kill¬ 
ing sheep near the outskirts of Saginaw 
county. They have been hunting for him and 
at last have caught him. Where he came 
from no one knows, but perhaps he was driven 
in by forest fires last year from Midland 
county or from that direction. It is a good 
while since a genuine timber wolf has been 
killed or seen in Saginaw county.” 
A big flight of mallard ducks seems to have 
been on at the close of the season. When I 
was in Saskatchewan the latter part of Oc¬ 
tober I could not but notice the preponderance 
of mallards over all other ducks. There 
seemed to be many of them. 
I had a letter lately from my friend, C. E. 
Deane, of Chicago, in which he spoke of the 
mallard shooting they had been having at the 
Illinois ducking clubs, and especially the one 
four thousand ducks, and neither the members 
or the game warden dared to do a thing, for 
every poacher carrier a rifle beside his duck 
gun, and would use it, too. In this market 
(Chicago) the following prices are asked: 
Prairie chicken, $3 each; partridges, $2.50; 
quail, 50c.; mallards, $1.” 
This seems to indicate that the respect they 
have for the Lacey law is slim and that the 
United States Government is not doing its 
duty, for we never expect anything from the 
State Government in the way of game law 
enforcement. 
I do not know what the law is in Minnesota 
in relation to the sale of game in and out of 
season, but when in Minneapolis last Octobei 
I was told that one could get all the game he 
wanted any time, and a half dozen of us were 
entertained at luncheon at one of the clubs 
and were served with prairie chicken. I think 
game can be had in or out of season at almost 
any club or hotel in the country. One of these 
days people are going to ask, “What has be¬ 
come of our game?” We are preaching a 
great deal about conservation, but we don’t 
conserve. One club after another and one as¬ 
sociation after another will meet and pasf> 
