The Holbrook news., 1912-09-13

Uncle Sam to sit up and take
 notice. The Biological Survey
 recently made an exhaustive report as to big game conditions, and the prospect in general, and while conditions were found good in some states, the reports from other haunts of big game were not so optimistic.
 As a matter of fact, between the game hogs, the ranchers who insist on having wild meat out of season, and bands of marauding Indians from various reservations, wild game in the west is travelling at a rapid pace, to- ward extinction. Most of the states have poor laws, which vary greatly, and these laws are enforced only spasmodically. It is almost impossi- ble to secure the conviction of any rancher who kills wild game out of season. Juries in the sparsely settled communities will never convict, and in consequence state officers have be- come discouraged and rarely prose cute. The tourist who happens to kill a grouse. out of season, or whose ig- norance of local game laws leads him Into some such blunder, is made the Ngoat" The chap who happens to have an undersized trout in his creel Is fined heavily, while the local resi- dent who may be making a practice of killing mountain sheep. upon which there Is no open season in most west ern states, is allowed to carry on his work unmolested because no convic- ton can be secured in local court.
 Colorado, New Mexico. Arizona and Indians, who care nothing for the white mans game laws. The Indians kill right and left, and. on their deer hunting expeditions, does and lawns as well as bucks fall victims to their guns. There is another influence at work against which the most strin- gent laws in the world would be un- availing-the rapid settlement of the open range.
 Antelope in particular have suffered from the encroachments of the set son on antelope for several years, but these animals are steadily disappear Ing. The plains country east of the Rocky mountains has been put under fence until little of the range has been left for the antelope. AS a result the state of Colorado has had to feed the lew remaining bands of these beauti- tul creatures nearly every winter. The best of the range has been taken up by settlers. The antelope are unable to find sufficient natural food, and are l-g- I 4~ Rn yards of the ranchers. The ranchers do not have more than enough feed Tor their stock, and are compelled to call upon the state for protection, as the antelope play havoc with hay stacks.
 Laws Vary.
 Fish are title better protected than other forms of wild game. The fish laws of the western states vary to remarkable degree, and little real pro- lection is afforded under them. It Is the same old story of difficulty in se- curing a conviction in local courts. Dynamiters and seiners ply their call Ing, and are seldom caught and never convicted Wyoming, which has the finest trout streams in the west, un- less exception be made of the Gun nison in Colorado, has no closed seq son on trout. Fishermen report big | catches in spawning time, when the | hsh should be left undisturbed. If | .here are any laws regarding the | of irrigation ditches. such | laws are never enforced, and one | hears of ten and twelve-pound trout | being caught by farmers boys in irri- | ration ditches. If somebody is to be the citizens of an enter orising town in the haunts of the big | rout will give fish fry" For day ,r two everybody in town will turn put, and the streams will be whipped .o a foam. The laws regulating the Iize of the individual catch will be openly violated, and when the day or the "fry'' arrives there will be a 7eritable orgy, with thousands of rout forming the feature of the feast. The finest trout streams in the world Ire being depleted rapidly, and fisher nen who visit the North Platte and he Laramie every season report that hose streams are showing the effect if Wyoming's lax enforcement of the avs.
 The condition of the elk in Jack on's Hole is largely due to the con- tant hunting of the animals in other localities. Thousands of elk have rifted from Colorado northward in he last few years. being frightened