In Geer v. Connecticut, 161 U. S. 517, 532, 16 Sup. Ct 600, 606 (40 L. Ed. 793), the Supreme Court, by Mr. Justice White (now Chief Justice), said:
"So far as we are aware, it has never been judicially denied that the government, under its police powers, may make regulations for the preservation of game and fish, restricting their taking and molestation to certain seasons of the year, although laws to this effect, it is believed, have been in force in many of the older states since the organization of the federal government. » « « The ownership being in the people of the state, the repository of the sovereign authority, ana no individual having any property rights to be affected, it necessarily results that the Legislature, as the representative of the people of the state, may withhold or grant to individuals the right to hunt and kill game or qualify or restrict, as. in the opinions of its members, will best subserve the public welfare. Stated in other language, to hunt and kill game is a boon or privilege, granted either expressly or impliedly by the sovereign authority, not a right inherent in each individual, and consequently nothing is taken away from the individual when he is denied the privilege at stated seasons of hunting and killing game. It is perhaps accurate to say that the ownership of the sovereign authority is in trust for all the people of the state, and hence by implication it is the duty of the Legislature to enact such laws as will best preserve the subject of the trust and secure its beneficial use in the future to the people of the state. But, in any view, the question of the individual enjoyment is one of public policy and not of private right."