Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)
General
Fifty Years a Hunter and Trapper: Autobiography, experiences and observations of Eldred Nathaniel Woodcock during his fifty years of hunting and trapping.
Woodcock, E. N. (Eldred Nathaniel)
Hunting; Trapping
The game laws of Georgia are a little hard on the trapper and
fisherman. The non-resident trapper has to pay a license of fifteen
dollars and the local trapper a license of three dollars. (This
alludes to the laws of 1912.) That is not the worst part of it. In
fact, the license fund, if justly used in the protection of game and
game birds and the propagation of game and birds, I would not object
to the license.
The hard part of the game law of Georgia is the trespass part of it.
The trapper must have a written permission from the land owner to
trap or fish on any man's land and where the river is the dividing
line between different parties owning the land, the trapper or
fisherman must have the written permit from both land owners, even
though he does not leave his boat to set a trap or place a trot line.
Now it is a very difficult thing for a stranger to learn who owns the
land and often the owner of the land lives in some city of the North,
or elsewhere. Now here is where the shoe pinches the hardest. The
fine for trespassing on a man's land is $40.00 and it is the duty of
the game warden to arrest any one he finds hunting, trapping or
fishing on any man's land without a written permit. Here is the worst
of all. The game warden must make the arrest without any notice from
the land owner and if the game warden fails to make the arrest, he is
liable to the same fine as the one who is doing the trespassing. This
is a law that the average land owner never asked for.
I had men come to me every day and offer me the privilege of trapping
or hunting on their land without any request on my part. I found the
majority of the people of Georgia very kind in regard to this
trespass matter as well as other matters. It was only a few sporting
"Nabobs" that concocted this stringent part in the trespass law,
contained in the game laws of Georgia.
Most other states of the south have as trespass laws, that the land
owner must order the arrest. The laws of Alabama allow or at least
can not stop the trapper or fisherman from trapping or fishing so
long as he keeps within the boundary limits of the river, which is
sufficient to give the trapper or fisherman ample ground to camp on.
After leaving the Coosa River I went into the extreme northern part
of Georgia where I camped for about three weeks and never met a more
friendly class of people than within the vicinity of Oakman and
Ranger. After leaving this section, I went into camp near Crandel,
Ga. From there I went into the Fog Mountains, where I found game
fairly plentiful but owing to bad weather and the condition of my
health, did not hit the trap line very heavy.
CHAPTER XXXII.
Trapping in Alabama.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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