American Big Game in Its Haunts: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club
History
American Big Game in Its Haunts: The Book of the Boone and Crockett Club
Big game hunting -- United States
Having elaborated in one's mind the idea that a Game Refuge, in order to
be a success, should be about ten or twelve miles square, the question
arises, how near are these to be placed to one another? If they are
established at the beginning, not less than twenty or twenty-five miles
from each other, it seems to me that the exigencies of the situation
would be met. It is not our purpose, in creating them, seriously to
interfere with the privileges of hunters adjoining the forests where
they are established. On the contrary, all that is wished is to
preserve the present number of the deer, or to allow them slightly to
increase. The system of game refuges of the size indicated, would, I
believe, accomplish this end. In all probability, at the beginning of
the open season, the deer would be distributed with a considerable
degree of uniformity throughout the reserve, outside of the game refuges
as well as within. They would go, of course, where the food and
conditions suited them. As the hunting season opened, and the game, in a
double sense, become more lively, the deer would naturally seek shelter
where they could find it. Since this, with them, would be a question
literally of vital interest, their education would progress rapidly,
particularly that of the wary old bucks, experienced in danger which
they had survived in the past simply because their bump of caution was
well developed, these would soon realize that they were safe within the
bounds of a certain tract--that there the sound of the rifle was never
heard, that there far less frequently they ran across the hateful scent
of their enemies, and for some mysterious reason were left to their own
devices. When once this idea has found firm lodgment in the head of an
astute deer, the very first thing that he will do will be to get into an
asylum of this sort, and to stay there; if he has any business to
transact beyond its boundaries, exactly as an Indian would do in similar
circumstances, he will delegate the same to a young buck who is on his
promotion, and has his reputation to make, and who possesses the
untarnished courage of ignorance and youth. It seems to me that this
system of small refuges would have the merit of fairness both to the
hunters and to the deer, and it is respectfully submitted to the
legislators of the United States. This may seem one of the simplest of
solutions, and hardly worth a summer's cruise to discover. It may prove
that this is not the first occasion when the simplest solution is the
best. Because a thing is simple it is not always the case, however,
that it finds the most ready acceptance. If, in my humble capacity of
public service, I am the indirect means of this being accomplished, I
shall feel that my summer's work was not altogether in vain.
_Alden Sampson_.
[Illustration: TEMISKAMING MOOSE.]
Temiskaming Moose
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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