oted some time to
inquiring into game conditions, the laws of the state were very bad. At
the mouth of Bear River, ducks were being slaughtered for the markets by
the tens of thousands. The cold-blooded, wide open and utterly shameless
way in which it was being done, right at the doors of Salt Lake City,
was appalling.

At the same time, the law permitted the slaughter of _spotted fawns_. I
saw a huge drygoods box filled to the top with the flat skins of
slaughtered innocents, _260 in number_, that a rascal had collected and
was offering at fifty cents each. In reply to a question as to their
use, he said: "I tink de sportsmen like 'em for to make vests oud of."
He lived at Rawlins, Wyo.

After a long and somnolent period, during which hundreds of thousands of
ducks, geese, brant and other birds had been slaughtered for market at
the Bear River shambles and elsewhere, the state awoke sufficiently to
abate a portion of the disgrace by passing a bag-limit law (1897).

And then came Nature's punishment upon Utah for that duck slaughter. The
ducks of Great Salt Lake became afflicted with a terrible epidemic
disease (intestinal coccidiosis) which swept off thousands, and stopped
the use of Utah ducks as food! It was a "duck plague," no less. It has
prevailed for three years, and has not yet by any means been stamped
out. It seems to be due to the fact that countless thousands of ducks
have been feeding on the exposed alluvial flats at the mouth of the
creek that drains off the _sewage of Salt Lake City_. The conditions are
said to be terrible.

To-day, Utah is so nearly destitute of big game that the subject is
hardly worthy of mention. Of her upland game birds, only a fraction
remains, and as her laws stand to-day, she is destined to become in the
near future a gameless state. In a dry region like this, the wild life
always hangs on by a slender thread, and it is easy to exterminate it!

Utah should instantly stop the sale of game that she now legally
provides for,--twenty-five shore birds and waterfowl per day to
private parties!

Deer should be given a ten-year close season, at once. All bag
limits should instantly be reduced one-half. The sage grouse, quail,
swans, woodcock, dove, and all shore birds should be given a
ten-year close season,--and rigidly protected,--before the stock is
all gone.

The model law for the protection of non-game birds should be enacted
at once.

The absolute pr