The courier-index., 1920-12-03
Our Disappearing Game
lRv Harry Lee Williams in Jones' boro Tlibune.)

.sts of Arkansas report big game on +he decrease to such an extent that ;x some localities where even last yesr many deer were secured, game ias practically been exterminated .r moved on to deeper fastnesses in tAe wilderness that afford better cover. In the big woods of Arkan- eos where practically all the re- gaining deer and turkey and bear lave sought haven, the ruthless killing that has always predominated i, the past, did not obtain this year. It was not because of scarcity If hunters, for more hunters were in the big woods this year than snv time in history. It was be- cause the game is not there. It has heen killed out and drowned out un- t;I only a remnant of the vast horde that stalked through the forests in the past remain as the survivors of the slaughter.
 A decade or two ago game was Slentiful in the back districts of northern Arkansas but the market hunters, doe killers and men who killed out of season when the oppor- tunity presented itself without re- card to law, drove what few deer that remained further south to the big woods that start in below Helena and winds on down to the Louisiana line. This vast wilderness of a hundred miles in length and ten to twenty miles across dotted by a chain of lakes and the winding streams of the White and Arkansas rivers cutting through the forests like ribbons of gold and silver, has been the great paradise of hunters for several years, and has afforded practically all the sport that has fallen to their lot the past five years. And now even this last refuge is practically gone and the deer, bear and turkey are almost exterminated.
 'rIn little pocket on the Arkan- sas river between the levee and the Mississippi the past two weeks fif- teen or twenty bands of hunters with numerous packs of hounds have been following the chase with small success. Only a. few deer have been killed and many hunters failed to bag single buck. We have talked to hunters who were camped on White river. Big Creek, Scrub Grass, near Elaine and Ratio and in the woods between Snow lake and Arkansas City and all report game on the decline to an alarming extent At Elaine where one party bagged twenty-seven deer last fall and another party eighteen, and where over one hundred and twenty deer were killed in three weeks, ten or twelve parties camped this year and the total deer bagged up to last Wednesday was five. Less than twenty deer were killed in the game fields around Watson and Kel- SO.
 It is true that there has been great development in Arkansas the past few years. Through the drain age of vast areas the forests have been reclaimed and opened up to cultivation, and it is equally true that deer cannot propagate in cotton fields, but there is plenty of big woods left if our game was hus- banded as it should be, and our game 'wardens enforced the law without fear or favor.
 Over a hundred deer were slaugh- tered last winter and spring on the levee along the Arkansas river when the high water entered a crevasse and enveloped the land forcing the deer to the levee. Negroes killed them when they were too poor to eat, due to long fasting and swim ming through the waters to that haven of safety from the raging fN4 aI tor nf their plight and joined in the slaugh- Ter. Two more years inroad on the game and Arkansas will have no big game.
 We were in the woods for week and during that time met men from all sections of the state and some rom other states. We talked to them in the woods, on game cross ings, in the camp and on the train returning home. They all report ,ne same conditions in every hunting locality. We met one of the states veteran hunters whose name IS known far and wide in south Arkan- sas and who lives in the town named m ms honor He was driving pack ol twenty hounds when he passed our crossing in the woods. He told us ne had combed out thickets and canebrakes that morning where he never failed to start buck before, yet his dogs failed 10 strike a single .rall Growing reminiscent, he told wlth trembling voice of the great quantity of deer and bear that he nad killed there in the past and how easy 1t was to start a buck in five minutes out of camp in that distant uay. But those days are gone for ever, he said, as he slowly moved away through the aisles of the great aorest, and as we watched the re- treating form of that old hunter as ae moved off through the cane we thought of another generation of hunters coming on who will perhaps never see live deer or bear in their mud state unless laws are speedily passed to prevent the utter extinc- ''ol or the states game.
 Efforts to conserve it have been ,uaue in the past with but meagei success, but something must be done
 Ihe next legislature which meets In4