igures for game permits, and the reason
for the larger number issued for 1903 over 1902, I cannot myself
altogether explain the large increase. One reason, however, was that our
rainfall for the winter of 1902-3 was very large compared with that of
the five previous winters. As a result grass and feed were plentiful,
and attracted many more travelers and hunters, who figured that game
would be much more plentiful owing to the abundance of feed. I believe
that this was the principal reason why so many obtained permits. The
abundant rain made camping more pleasant, as it started up springs which
had been dry for several years. I believe that this very thing, however,
also tended to protect the game as it permitted them to scatter more
than for several years before, as water was more abundant. With all the
increase in guns and hunters I do not think that any more deer were
killed than during the summer of 1902." (Letter from Forest Supervisor,
Mr. Everett B. Thomas, Los Angeles, Feb. 13, 1904.) It is to be noted
that in the southern California reserves, on the ground of precaution
against forest fires, no shotguns may be carried into the reserves. As a
result quail have greatly increased in numbers.]

It is to be borne in mind that all through this California country there
exists a race of hunters--active, determined men, who passionately love
this diversion. The people there have not been so long graduated as we
of the Atlantic Coast from the conditions of the frontier. The ozone of
a new country stirs more quickly the predatory instinct, never quite
dead in any virile race. The rifle slips easily from its scabbard, and
there in plain sight before them are the forest-clad mountains, a mile
above their heads, in the cool and vital air, ever beckoning the hunter
to be up and away. These people feel in their blood the call of the
wild. With a very considerable proportion of the people upon farms, and
still more in villages and small towns, the Fall hunt is the commanding
interest of the year. This is the one athletic contest into which they
enter heart and soul; it is foot-ball and yachting and polo and horse
racing combined. For a young man to go into the forest after deer and
to come back empty-handed, is to lose prestige to a certain extent among
his fellows. Oftentimes, when a beginner returns in this way
unsuccessful, he is so unmercifully chaffed by his companions that he
mentally records a vow not to be beaten a second