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j : : : ; . I ELK SLAUGHTER IN MONTANA ;Gamo Hogs Murder. Many Animals at Superior and Door Lodge. ; Reports of the wholesale slaughter of tame elk :in the vicinities of Deer Lodge and Superior, Mont., jliave aroused warm indignation in these coniniu-jnitics, according to a report recently received from Missoula. Nearly a hundred of the animals, which under the protection of the law the past few years thave grown almost as tame as dairy cattle, were killed in a few hours near Superior, and sixty-four were shot down by not more than five game hogs west of Deer Lodge. Both reports are. being investigated. The elk were taken from Yellowstone Park a number of years ago and transplanted in western ;Molitana, wliere they were protected until the session of the legislature last winter. Then the soloits, against the recommendations of State Game Warden De Hart, lifted tlie ban and allowed an open season of ten days in Mineral County and forty-five days in Powell County, except in that part lying south of the north fork of the Blackfoot River, where the hunting was restricted to ten days. Meanwhile the elk have become accustomed to men and have lost the" vigilance they once had. When the season opened the alleged sportsmen were ready with nn organized plan for killing them, according to the story received. They had no difficulty in rounding up the elk in a horse pasture and they then shot them down without mercy. Local forestry officials, . while condemning the unsportsmanlike slaughter as the worst in the annals of western Montana, are doubtful whether anything can be done, as the law allows a man one elk, and it will be difficult to prove that any certain individual got more than that number. West of Deer Lodge, it is said, a party of not more than five hunters stumbled onto a herd of elk and killed- sixty-four, when they rushed to Deer Lodge and brought out men in automobiles, each to claim an elk as his particular "sport" trophy. Officials are investigating the report. Fear is expressed at the forestry offices that the herd of fifty elk in the Lola National Forest near Lothrop may leave their present protected feeding grounds in Missoula County and wander to their death in Mineral County. A wanton slaughter of the elk in the Bitter Root Valley, where the season was opened against the wishes of the forestry service, is also anticipated. The elk were brought over by forestry officials and planted in western Montana. The herd at Superior had increased seventy-five per cent during its stay iu that region.
