Vol. VIII, No. 11 
1938  .Z!Q  ~PENNSYLVANIA GAME NEWS                           19 
February, 1938,  19 
EARLY DAY CoNSERVATION 
By CAPTAIN LEO F. S. HORAN, U. S. Marine Corps, (Retired). 
 
H UNTING laws in Pennsylvania date back at least to the year 
1760. Game laws were provided then; a closed season for deer 
was proclaimed; hunting out of season or without license was made 
punishable; shooting wild birds in cities and boroughs was made 
subject to fine; firing a gun on or near the highways was forbidden; 
and hunting of any kind of game on Sunday was declared illegal. 
Conservation of game and the regulation of hunting and shooting) 
was provided for by the provincial legislators of Pennsylvania in 
the Act of April 9, 1760. That is nearly 178 years ago. 
By that Act citizens of Pennsylvania were provided with their 
first "game protectors." If they were not so in name, they were
in 
fact. Section II provided that every constable in the "province,"

having knowledge of offenses against the Act, was required to 
make them known to a justice of the peace of their county, or to 
a justice of general quarter sessions for the county, together with 
the names of the offenders, in order that they may be prosecuted. 
But that was not all the law decreedl If a constable failed to do 
so, he was made subject to a penalty of £5. An English pound 
today is the equivalent of about $5 in American currency, and it 
was a lot of money in those days. 
As I was reading "The Pennsylvania Game News" for October, 
1937, and saw the picture of the first graduating class of the Train- 
ing School for Game Protectors in Pennsylvania, I thought how 
proud those men must be of the fact that they are to carry on 
vigorously a duty that had its inception nearly two centuries ago. 
The legislators of 1760 took their law-making seriously. In deal- 
ing with the subject of conservation they were confronted not only 
with the problem of regulating the take of their own people but 
also with provision of food for the Indians of the province. 
Then was established an open and closed season for deer. Con- 
trasted with the law of today, it was most liberal. Open season 
on Indian lands- vas from Augu'st- 16 January . Durifig-the closed 
season, if any person "shall hunt, chase or follow with a design 
to kill, or shall kill or destroy any buck, doe or fawn, within the 
lands already or hereafter purchased of the Indians," the penalty 
was £3. 
There were poachers in the 1700's just as there are in the 1900's. 
But our early law-makers made provision for them too. If, during 
the closed season, any person was found to have in his custody 
any "green deer skins, fresh venison, or deer's flesh," they were

deemed and taken as evidence of the guilt of the person in whose 
custody they were found. The words "deer flesh" doubtless were

intended to include dried or smoked meat. The law was enacted 
with humane consideration for the Indians, in that nothing con- 
tained therein was to be deemed or construed to extend to any 
"free native Indians" carrying guns, hunting, killing and having

in their custody any skins or deer flesh "for their own use." There

was, apparently, no closed season for them under the latter cir- 
cumstance. 
The law-makers went further. They were doubtless familiar also 
with poachers who shot game not only out of season but out of 
bounds, for they provided that if any person carry a gun, or hunt 
on any inclosed or improved lands other than his own, without 
license or permission from the owner of such lands, he was liable 
to a fine of 40 shillings (a shilling is the equivalent of 25 cents 
today) by a justice of the peace. To that provision was added a like 
penalty for firing a gun "on or near any of the King's highways."

Hence may have come the slogan, "Make the highways safe." 
In Section VII relating to birds, it was provided that "No person 
whatsoever shall presume to shoot at, or kill with a firearm, any 
pigeon, dove, partridge or other fowl, in the open streets of the 
city of Philadelphia, or in the gardens, orchards and inclosures ad- 
joining upon and belonging to any of the dwelling houses within 
the limits of the said city, or suburbs thereof, or any of the bor- 
oughs or towns within this province, upon the forfeiture of 40 
shillings for every such offense * * * " 
The sportsmen of the Quaker City were possibly urging the 
passage of that section of the bill while men "from the country"

doubtless had their advocates pressing for protection of their 
boroughs. 
 
It is interesting to note what our forefathers thought of Sunday 
sport in view of the recent enactment of the Pennsylvania legis- 
lature permitting fishing on the Sabbath. In 1760 it was declared 
illegal to hunt or kill "any kind of game" on the Sabbath day,

under a penalty of 40 shillings for every such offense. 
Conviction under the Act was had upon the oaths or affirmations 
of one or more creditable witnesses, or the confession of the party, 
before one or more justices of the peace for the respective county 
where such offense was committed, provided such conviction be 
made within six months. 
It is likewise interesting to observe what disposition was made 
of the fines imposed upon offenders under this Act. One-half went 
to the informer, the other to the overseers of the poor of the 
township where the offense was committed, for the use "of the 
poor of said township." If the justice of the peace were the in- 
former, the entire amount was paid to the overseers. 
Considering the matter of earmarking funds for relief, it would 
appear that this law of 1760 lends credence to the saying, "There's

nothing new under the sun." 
They must have had "fixers" in the early days-boys who get 
the tickets killed for you-as we have today, but their lot was not 
so easy. In the good old days if an offender refused to pay his 
fine, then his property was levied upon by distress and sold. 
"returning the overplus, if any, to the owner." For want of dis-

tress (where the offender had no goods to be levied upon), he was 
committed to prison! For a fine of £3, "the space of 30 days";
for 
40 shillings, 20 days. To cap the climax, and to outdo the fixers, it 
was provided that, where an offender was sent to jail, it was 
"without bail or mainprize." Mainprize, as defined in Bouvier's

Law Dictionary, is "the taking a man into friendly custody, who 
might otherwise be committed to prison, upon security given for 
his appearance at a time and place assigned." 
Persons~ who rcmplain today about -thc-stuppose4 severity of 
conservation laws as a new-fangled idea should be informed that 
it is "an old American custom" which real sportsmen intend not

only to uphold but to enforce. 
Governor Earle in approving on June 3, 1937, the Revised Game 
Code, thereby carries on the work of conservation of game which 
had its start in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania about two 
hundred years ago. 
 
Bear cubs should be left in the woods.