Ist. That it leads to the indiscriminate slaughter of deer, and has produced a scarcity of deer during the usual hunting months. That it increases forest fires and is a menace and a danger to our forests.

2nd.

A fair representation of what is charged under the first head is the following, taken from various newspapers in the State: "There have been few things done in the interests of our fish and game in the past that have met with such bitter opposition as has this measure, (September law). From a humane as well as economic point of view, the law should be turned down at the coming session. Of course the results of proposed legislation can never be positively foretold until it is tried, but this of a surety has been a costly experiment.

It is an undoubted fact that Maine has lost much in her income this year during the hunting season over what we might have expected. The hunting has not been as good as usual, owing to dry weather as well as the September law. There has not been such a large influx of sportsmen for various reasons."

Bangor correspondence of Boston Herald: "Hunters who have returned here say that the deer are growing scarce, and they attribute the decrease to the September law." This paper in the same issue printed from its Waterville correspondent the following: "It is claimed by some sportsmen that the fifteen days of September that were open for deer caused a wholesale stampede of what few moose there were."

There was recently published in the Lewiston Journal, from its Waterville correspondent, what purported to be interviews with several gentlemen, hunters, and sportsmen. This correspondent says in the article referred to, "There is a general feeling hereabouts that the September license law on deer is a bad thing for the State and a serious setback to the sport. There are numerous hunters who are crying out against it, and it is likely that the coming session of the legislature will be asked to straighten out the tangle that the game commissioner of the State seems to have worked up. It was Commissioner Carleton who evolved the idea that the State might receive a good thing in a pecuniary sense from sportsmen who would be willing to pay for a license to shoot deer in September, and consequently the last fifteen days of September were set aside as the period which

sportsmen might pay the sum of $4.00 for the privilege of shooting a deer if he lived in this State, and $6.00 if he resided in another State. That this license system has worked sad havoc with the game interests of the State, and quite the reverse of Mr. Carleton's expectations, and proved to be a great loss to the State is in evidence from what sportsmen have to say at this time."

A prominent attorney of Skowhegan, was particularly displeased with the way the September license has operated. When asked if he had anything to say on the subject he replied, "I go up river every year for the purpose of hunting; I have heard enough about this new scheme to get money for the State and have had sufficient experience this fall with the game that I did not see, to feel like stating that the plan is a bad one. It is just like this: A resident pays $4, and a non-resident $6 for a license to kill a deer. The man with a license goes up river in the month of September when deer are tame and easy to find in the waterways. He sits around the shore of a pond or a stream and when the deer comes along to the water, he shoots him. He examines the head and it proves to be not quite as good as he wants and he disposes of the carcass. I am told there are various ways of disposing of the carcass. It has been said in my hearing that some carcasses have been buried in leaves or underbrush, and that others have been dragged into the ponds with a great stone tied around the neck; then the hunter proceeds to shoot another deer and keeps on shooting until he brings down the head that suits his taste. In this way a man with a $4 license may shoot a dozen deer so long as he does not tag more than the law allows."

A well known Waterville druggist, and a thorough sportsman, denounces the license system.

Mr. has not yet visited the game section this year. He said when the thing was first suggested, "I understood it was Mr. Carleton's particular hobby; when asked if he had heard that carcasses of deer had been dumped into the ponds, when it was discovered that the head of the creature was not to the liking of the hunter, Mr. said that he had heard of this being done, and also that carcasses had been buried in the ground, yet he was not in possession of any evidence that would prove this,

as it had come to him in conversation, in which another had expressed the belief to be general in the game sections that such work had been done."

John B. Murphy, a Waterville hotel man, was born and raised at West Forks, had the following to say: "The license system is simply spoiling the game privileges. Last year when I went into the Enchanted there were ten deer where there is one now. It is talked generally among the sportsmen that men have bought licenses of the game wardens and then have gone into the woods for a general slaughter of deer. I do not know of any men who can be convicted of such a thing, but I do know that it has been told to me. I have heard that does have been shot and buried and that the man with a license has killed bucks until he has secured the right kind of a head. I do not know that it is a fact, but I have heard that deer have been dragged into the ponds and sunk in order to cover up the fact that the slayer had overstepped the provisions of the law. I want to say that in all my goings and comings in the woods, I never saw the game so driven back and frightened as it has been this year. Why is it so if the selling of the September licenses is not to blame for it? I have said that last year there were ten deer to one this year."

Daniel Patience, proprietor of the Enchanted pond camps, admits that game is scarce, and says he can find no other excuse for it than the license system.

He can furnish no evidence that men have killed deer in excess of the number allowed by law. "Time was when the Maine woods began to attract the attention of the great sporting world, that nearly every sportsman employed a guide, but now the new man to the country, or the man who cannot shoot, is about the only one who takes a guide along on a hunting expedition. The man who began coming to Maine a dozen or more years ago has become familiar with the woods and needs no guide. Often these bring along one or more friends and he is. both companion and guide for the party. There are a great many of this latter class and as they have no guide along, there is no way of the guide knowing whether they have kept within the limits of the law, unless the latter stumbles onto the party and by accident discovers the fact of wrong doing.