Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1906-09-07

II ten years there will hardly be
enough big game in the West to tempt
hunter to take down his rif1e-pro-
vided the present rate Of slaughter is
maintained.
From the Western States that have
long been famed as the haunts of big
game Of all descriptions come stories Of
fragrant disregard Of laws. Hunting is
carried on out of season by ranchmen,
ard, If game warden makes an ar
rest, it is almost impossible to find a
jury that will convict. An occasional
outsider is fined but the native" gen
orally gets off scot-free, even If he has
been caught with wagon load Of lille
g6Ily slaughtered game in his posses
sion.
In the last haunt Of the elk, south Of
Yellowstone Park, in the Jackson Hole
country, those noble animals are fast
disappearing. Even the game of Vel
ICwstone National Park is not exempt,
If stories from Wyoming and Montana
arc correct, as it is claimed that poach
els carry on a campaign of wholesale
slaughter in the long winter months,
wien the park is snowbound and when
1t is practically impossible for soldiers
to guard the great game preserve of
the nation.
In the Northwest little or no atten-
ton is paid to laws protecting those
rare animals, mountain goats; while in
Colorado and other Rocky Mountain
States, whose peaks are the grazing
ground of the mountain sheep, those
beautiful animals arr being killed off
in spite of a farcica perpetual closed
season"
Less than a decade ago a man could
get all kinds Of deer hunting in Colo
r&do; and a score of years ago the buff
falo were still rooming the plains east
OF the Rockies But to-day the deer is
getting almost as rare as the buffalo.
The elk long ago left Colorado's noun.
tains and drifted north into Wyoming,
where bands of them are still to be
found in JacksOnS Hole. But the laws
of Wyoming, while making it hot for
any outsider who kills elk out of sea-
son, are inadequate when put in oper-
alton against the native hunter. 1t is
the Western ranchman who is doing
most of the illegal killing 1t is I'M
possible to convince the average ranch
er that he Is not privileged to 90 out
anG get fresh meat whenever he
wants 1t, regardless of game laws. The
deer or elk come down to his very
fences In winter, and there Is little
chance of discovery If one of the ami
mails Is killed. Even If a stray game
warden happens along and puts him IN
der arrest, there is little to fear, as q
jury Is pretty sure to be made up of
rGnchmen who are all tarred with the
same stick. So the game hog gets off
free and goes on with his work Of
Slaughter in season and out.
Even the setting aside of government
forest reserves and parks has done lit
tic to stop the slaughter of game In
the summer, when the reserves are pa
uoIed by rangers, and when Yellow.
stone Park is guarded by soldiers, there
IS little or no illegal killing done. But
in the winter, when there are no ran
gers in the reserves, and when the
snowbound roads make it impossible
for the soldiers to patrol the big park
thoroughly, the work of slaughter goes
or. There are two big forest reserves
adjoining Yellowstone Park-the Teton
reserve and the Yellowstone reserve
Roth are alive with game, as is the
park itself. A limited amount of game
can be killed IN the reserves, in season,
in conformity with the game laws of
Wyoming but the season in the park
is always closed. No firearms are adj
n.itted into the park, save those car,
ried by the soldiers. If one insists on
carrying a gun into the park he must
have it sealed
But all these rules and regulations
cut little figure in the eyes of the skill
cd and experienced poachers who live
in the vicinity of the park. These men
do no killing in summer or autumn.
They make their So a day as guides for
hunting parties of Fasteners But in
the winter. when the SHOWS are deep
and the tremendous winter of the Vel
lcwStone country has set in, they get
very busy. On snowshoes these poach-
eTS find it easy to enter the forest re-
serves and the park. and to kill all the
game they want. Magnificent elk, deer
and other game fall before their rifles.
If a lonely soldier sights the poachers
1T work, the chances are he pays no at
tcDtion, for the reason that it would
only result in his own death.
IN addition TO the work of the white
game hog, many of the Western States
have troubles with wandering bands of
Indians. that carry on indscriminate
slaughter of game. These Indians have
no business off their reservations but