18 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
ever it touches it. is as sure as a shot, and disappears in the 
thick .skin in ranch the same manner, entering their very 
vitals and goading them on to new acts of fury, aud often, 
perhaps, causing the uncoveted attacks for which they 
are so justly noted. 0. F, Holder, 
New Bedford, 1875. % 
For Forest anti Stream. 
A DAY’S MOOSE HUNTING IN 1860. 
W E had lain in camp ten days—three of. us,, with as 
many dogs; two noble moose dogs, having to judge 
from their looks, the blood of the bulldog, mastiff, beagle, 
and stag-hound, and a brindled bull terrier, possessea of 
all the pluck and endurance of his race, but with no more 
knowledge of hunting tkan a sheep, having been brought 
from Rhode Island, where he had never seen anything in 
the shape of game larger than a woodchuck. We were 
buried in the heart of the great forest of Northern Maine, 
fifty miles northwest from Patten, in the vicinity of Telos 
Lake, and Sad waited for a “crust” through days of rain, 
thaw, and fog till we were perfectly desperate. At length 
ii cleared up, and on that eventful night we sal up till 
eleven o’clock, running out of camp every half hour to 
plunge our forefingers into the fast-freezing snow to test 
the strength of the crust. When it became too hard for 
our fingers to penefrate, wo retired satisfied to our berth to 
dream of moose. 
At the first glimmering of daylight the nest morning we 
•were on the moose; hut as the shadows of night retreated, 
and Ihe pale sun illuminated the wintry sky, it became 
rapidly overcast, and we saw that a snowstorm before 
nightfall was inevitable; and a snowstorm in the neighbor¬ 
hood of Kutahdin has to be seen to be appreciated. How¬ 
ever, we pushed on. and as the snow-shoeing -was all that 
could be desired, we soon placed six miles between our¬ 
selves and camp without striking the first signs of moose; 
but when, as we were skirling the base of one of the nu¬ 
merous “spruce mountains" which are found in this for¬ 
est, we suddenly missed our dogs. We had depended on 
them more than on ourselves to fiud a moose “yard,” as in¬ 
stances have been known where a trained moose dog has 
scented the game nearly, or quite, two miles, tind for the 
first three or four miles we had watchtjd them wilh eager 
eyes, but bad latterly grown more careless, and their sud¬ 
den disappearance somewhat disconcerted us, as their feet 
hardly made a mark upon the hard surface of the snow. 
To add to our perplexity the snow began to fall, rustling 
fiue and dry through the boughs anil withered leaves. We 
slowly retraced our steps forty or fifty cods, and stood un¬ 
decided which way to steer, when all at once the voice of 
old Major fell on our glad ears, so faint as to be scarcely 
perceptible, and apparently miles away. It was impossi¬ 
ble to distinguish the direction, aud equally impossible 
that the dog could get the apparent distance in the time he 
had been gone. Then the voices of the other two chimed 
in, seeming to float in the air overhead, and as we danced 
in circles over the snow, loo excited to stand still, and too 
undecided to lake any direct course, the noise grew sud¬ 
denly louder, and at once burst on our astonished ears, fill¬ 
ing the air with 'music, being not over one hundred yards 
away, and almost directly overhead. The mystery was 
solved. The dogs had run round the end of the mountain, 
(we being near its eastern extremity) aud bad started their 
name on the back side, which had bounded up its steep and 
almost inaccessible sides directly toward its summit. Of 
course tbe intervening ridge had all but cut off the sound; 
but when the animal and his pursuers reached the lop the 
sound poured down on us in a flood. 
To climb the mountain at the point where we were was 
simply impossible, and we tore around to its eastern end, 
•while the deep and measured haying of the big' dogs and 
tire incessant barking of tbe terrier aforesaid, told us the 
game was at bay. \Ve quickly divested ourselves of our 
suow-shoes, and commenced to clamber up the steep as¬ 
cent. Being encumbered with a heavy rifle—the only one 
we had taken from camp—I fell behind my comrades, and 
their shouts, as they reached the top, iuslead of hastening 
my ascent, as was intended, very nearly caused me to tum¬ 
ble back to the place from which I had climbed with so 
much labor. Bathed in perspiraliou, and panting for 
breath, I at length gained the summit, flung myself on to 
my snow-shoes, and bounded forward, hearing, as I ran, 
the voice of Bill (the Rhode Islander) frantically endeavor¬ 
in')- to call off his dog, which, mingled with the barking, 
snarling, and yelling of the dogs, made a din more easily 
imagined than described. I soon readied the scene of ac 
tiou, and the sight which presented itself to my view still 
has power to provoke a smile, although a gap of fifteen 
years stretches between. The dogs hud roused up a year¬ 
ling moose, which, making up in agility whiu it lacked in 
weight was fighting as only a moose can fight. The old 
do„°, Major and Rolla, wary both from instinct and expe¬ 
rience had escaped alinosL scatheless; not so with the un¬ 
fortunate bull-terrier, Jim Sharp. He had rushed m on 
that moose as he would at a pig or sheep, and the conse¬ 
quence was frightfully apparent—cut through the muscles 
into the cavity of the ahdomeu without dividing the tonga 
skin, and the entire intestines apparently protruded against 
the loose exterior integument. How he preserved his 
equilibrium whb a wonder, and still more wonderful 
was bis indifference, or rather utter unconsciousness that 
anything was wrong. He rushed around and barked and. 
bit as though his internal arrangements were in their nor¬ 
mal condition, and appeared, in fact, delighted. My first 
cure after taking in Hu; situation, was to eudeuvorto shoot 
the moose without sacrificing a dog. No such opportunity 
presenting itself, the animal gradually worked its way to 
the western extremity of the mountain, and maddened by 
fear and pain, jumped from the summit upon a ledge about 
lour feet below, which was perhaps six feel wide, and 
stood wilh liis head looking over an abyss of three hun¬ 
dred feet in depth, the mountain projecting over its base 
al this point thirty or forty feet. On finding itself itr this 
frightful position, the animal planted all its feet, firmly aud 
stood as if carved in stone, with its hack just above tbe 
level of tlie summit. Old Major calmly walked up belund 
the beleagured and helpless animal, aud fastened to him. 
By dint of command aud hard words the other dogs were 
kept, off, but Major proved utterly refractory. We dared 
not advance, for fear the moose would leap into tbe air, 
takinu the dog with him, and the same consideration re¬ 
strained me from firing. At length I lost patience, and 
■with a peremptory command from Joe to “risk it, I 
brought tbe rifle quickly to my shoulder. A glance through 
the double sight, a report like the crack of a whip, with 
no echoes on that height to rtAorn the sound, aud the ani¬ 
mal dropped lifeless in its tracks, with its head hanging 
over the cliff, pierced through the neck. We removed'the 
skin and disembowelled it v here it lay. Then, in view of 
the difficulty of getting it upon the summit and down the 
steep sides of the mountain, we determined to throw it 
over the cliff, which we did, hearing a dull thud far below 
as the mass of tiesh which so lately was a moose descend¬ 
ed to the earth. We retraced our steps to where we as¬ 
cended, and on getting round to our venison found it in a 
badly battered condition; but we hastily quartered and 
buried it. The snow by this time had fallen to a depth of 
three or four inches, and we struck out for camp taking a 
more southerly course than the one we had passed in the 
morning. I had forgot to state that, after shooting the 
moose, we held a “medical consultation" over the case of 
the unfortunate dog, Jim Sharp. His owucr advised 
shooting him on tlie spot, but we outvoted him two to one. 
Poor Jim was stretched out on the snow, and at the end of 
half an hour we had the pleasure of seeing him restored 
to his natural shape. A handkerchief—which two weeks 
before was white—was then lied around his body, an old 
mitten furnishing a pad, and with a rope attached t.o his 
collar, he trailed along behind his master's snow-shoes, his 
looks expressing sheepishness and disgiiBt. We had ac¬ 
complished nearly half our return distance to camp, and 
were crossing an outlying spur, which rose gradually to 
the south into the W assattiquoik Mountains, and, had 
just reached its crest, when we came suddenly on the 
tracks of a large moose. It was evideutthat the only snow 
in them was tliat which had just fallen; but as that was 
tlie first which had fallen in a fortnight, it was of course 
not easy to tell whether tlie tracks were ten hours or as 
fiiany days old. We were discussing in eager, but sup- 
iressed voices, whether it was best to hunt them out, or 
tocp on our course and return on the morrow, when the 
two dogs, which had been lazily pushing their noses into 
the old "dents," suddenly faced to the south, raised their 
noses higli in air, and with tails extended straight behind, 
walked a few steps, swinging their heads from side to side, 
quickening into a trot, and then bounding forward with 
an almost inaudible whine. Major lost the scent within a 
few rods of his starling-point, aud ran a circle to recover 
it; but Roll kept straight on towards a knoll, Which 1 ob¬ 
served at that moment, about a huudred yards distant. 
When within three yards of it, it rose as if blown into tlie 
air with gunpowder; ;he snow fell off, revealing a magnifi¬ 
cent bull mouse, blackerthan any I ever saw. A wild yell 
from the astonished dog brought Major round like a flash, 
while the excited terrier spun round like a top, tugging 
aud bitiug at his rope like a dog possessed. 1 started at. 
once iu advance, Joe being encumbered with the hide of 
the moose we had killed, and Bill with ills dog. The noble 
game had started directly along the ridge, which rose but 
very little for the first half mile. The snow had blown 
and melted nearly all off it, the old snow or crust not com¬ 
ing above his fetlocks—just enough, in fact, to steady his 
feet. But wilh all this advantage he could not gain on the 
dogs one inch. Bo close was old Roll to his haunches when 
he bounded to lus feet that he could not even settle into 
that long, ungainly lope'or trot, which carries him over all 
ordinary obstructions, and which the animal will keep up 
hours after hours in a depth of snow that those to wUocn 
the wonderful powers and endurance of this "king of the 
forest" are unknown, would deem impossible. The first 
leap from his bed would measure fully eighteen feet; aud 
this style of running he kept up greatly to my surprise, for 
old hunlere had informed me that moose never galloped 
when pursued, but always trotted, and in my subsequent 
experience I have never seen the thing repeated. How 
long this coiild have been kept up will never be known, 
for a circumstance occurred which brought the race to an 
abrupt termination. Like all the broken and mountainous 
countries, these wilds are subject to treineudous gales, 
which leave their traces iu windrows of giant trees, up¬ 
turned or broken by their force. Two of these tornadoes 
blowing from different quarters, lmd turned up two rows 
of trees in the form of a Y- Into the apex of this trap 
the animal had rushed in his blind haste. As it was near¬ 
ly twenty ieet high at this point, to leap over it was im¬ 
possible, and before he could retrace his steps the dogs 
were upon him. He had run perhaps one hundred rods; I 
had rqade half that distance, so he was hardly out of my 
Bight. There was no baying this time. The first iutirng- 
liou I received that the game was brought to, was the pe¬ 
culiar savage snarl a dog gives when he seizes it. At the 
same instant my ears were saluted by the heavy roars or 
“grunts,” as hunters call it, of the enraged bull. The 
Bound cannot he conveyed on paper; but the dull, heavy 
thuds produced by a sledge-hammer on the end of a post, 
when driving it into the ground, comes nearer to iUhan 
anything else I can think of. This is the animal’s call to 
its mate in tbe pairing season, and 1 have never heard it 
uttered at any other time, before or since; hut this fellow 
seemed an exception to hisrace in color, form, and actions.- 
Upon reaching the spot where the fight was raging, all the 
stories X had ever heard of the activity, fury, and power 
of this noble animal were more than verified. Perfectly 
fresh, his short run not having blown him in the least, 
with no snow to impede his movements, as roaring wilh 
rage he dashed first at one dog, and then the other, he ap¬ 
peared the very incarnation of fury, and I looked upon 
him with a sort of fascination. Not less wonderful was 
the conduct of (lie dogs. The first charge made as I came 
iu sight happened to he at my dog, and 1 involuntarily 
held my breath, for the windfall was directly behind him, 
and his destruction seemed inevitable; but the instinct of 
the dog was superior to my reason. He stood p.erleelly 
still, facing the moose, and as he rushed upon him, sprang 
between Ins fore legs, then out at oue side, aud lastened to 
his flank before 1 had time to realize that he Was not 
crushed out of all shape. This, which ’.seemed to me a 
mere chance escape, I afterwards came to know a good 
moose dog will do every time. The moose, in charging 
on the dog, invariably strikes directly downwards with 
each fore foot. This of course leaves the width of his 
breast between his feet, and through this space the dog 
darts and usually contrives to fasten to him before the be¬ 
wildered animal is aware that he has not trampled him un¬ 
der fool. Just as my companions reached the spot, old 
Major gave a tremendous upwards spring, and fastened to 
tbe animal's hinder parts; but his hold gave'.vty and he 
fell back. The moose, as he felt him strike tns haunches, 
delivered a tremendous kick, which, had the dog been at 
any distance from him, would have brained him ou the 
spot; but edging, as he did, upon his leg, the effect was to 
launch him iuto ihe air as if propelled from a (norUtr. Had 
he struck a tree in Lis course his fate would have been 
sealed. Luckily the coast was clear, and he flew over and 
over like an acrobat, clearing the windfall in his course 
and, alighting with a force that completely bewildered liim 
for some moments. His abscence produced a momentary 
cessation of hostilities, which gave me the wished for op¬ 
portunity of delivering the fatal shot. The bullet struck 
him behind tbe fore leg, aud going slightly “quartering,'’ 
broke Hie opposite shoulder as it came out. He pitched 
forward on to his nose, came up again instantly, endeav¬ 
ored to stand on the broken shoulder, failed again, theu 
reared upon his hind legs, and fell over backwards to rise, 
no more, still Uttering his “grunts," which only ceased 
with his breath. We quickly dressed and buried him, and 
taking his nose us a bonne louche , slatted once more for 
camp, where we arrived long after daTk, tired and hungry, 
but well pleased with our day’s moose hunting in the wilds 
of Northern Maine. Libeey 
For Forest and Stream. 
GAME IN WESTERN NEW YORK.. 
A LTHOUGH game of all kinds in this State is scarce 
in comparison with that found in Western and 
Southern States, there is still very fair shooting to be bad 
on game in its season for the sportsman wlri- knows tlie 
habits and favorite haunts of that which he seeks. There 
are probably one hundred deer killed annually near the 
■Pennsylvania border, in Steuben and other counties, while 
foxes, the white and gray hare, black and gray squirrels, 
raccoon, mink, and muskrat are found in abundance, par¬ 
ticularly in the halt mountainous section through which 
tlie Erie Railroad and its branches paBS. Ruffed grouse 
are widely distributed, being found in small numbers in 
the woodlands of nearly every farm Quail are also 
quite numerous, though many are killed by the heavy 
bhows of our severe winters, w'hole bevies being sometimes 
found in the spring under the deep drifts in tlie fence cor¬ 
ners Woodcock breed plentifully along tbe numerous 
lakes, ponds, rivers, creeks, trout streams, and ihe sur¬ 
rounding brush-covered bottom lands, whose rich, warm 
soil produces an abundance of food for these voracious 
feeders, and in favorable seasons a large brood is reared. 
Wood-duck are also found along these water courses. 
Ruffed grouse, quail, woodcock, and wood-dunk are the 
only game birds that breed iu this latitude, with the ex¬ 
ception of a few duck aud snipe that are belated on their 
northward flight, and seek the secluded and inaccessible 
recesses of tlie marshes and swamps adjacent to our lakes 
and bays, where their nests are made and their young 
reared. Tlie wild turkey disappeared long since, and is a 
thine of the past. Of the migratory birds which visit us 
may" he mentioned geese—wlvicli, however, are seldom 
shot—brant, loon, many varieties of duck—principally mal¬ 
lard-black, teal, red head, whistler, widgeon, sliell-drake, 
eoot, dipper, snipe, plover, aud curlew, with an occasional 
rail. The spring shooting of migratory birds amounts to hut 
little. Ducks are often poor and uufit for food, and snipe 
make so short a slay that comparatively few are bagged. 
A good hair is occasionally made in lavorable seasons if 
ihe shooter can be kept posted upon their arrival, and 
reaches tlie ground at once; but in case “winter lingers iu 
the lap of spring,” ami frequent frosts cover tlie marshes 
with a film of ice at night, it is useless to look for snipe. 
Immense flocks of pigeons formerly visited, us iu the 
spring, but for manv years the flight has decreased until 
the number of these' birds now met with in this par( of the 
State is insignificant. Lust spring, however, an unprece¬ 
dentedly large flight, estimated at millions, issued from the 
dense forests of Western Pennsylvania and flew up the Co- 
hocton valley in early morning to feed on acorns in the 
oak-covered ridges of that region, returning at night over 
the same route to roost. So vast was the body of birds 
that au area of many square miles was daily cleared 
of acorns and other nuts. The flight lasted for throe 
weeks, and afforded grand sport, the birds advancing far¬ 
ther north until they were forced to fly from sixty to one 
hundred miles from their roost for food. From the fact 
Unit nearly all the birds shot were males, their crops being 
Gorged with acorns lit night and entirely empty In the 
morning, it was thought that the females were nesting, 
and hi«-h hopes were entertained of having grand sport 
With theyoung brood, but the birds Suddenly lorsook the 
region, disappearing to some unknown locality, only a few 
solitary birds being seen during the entire summer. ThiB 
extraordinary flight was referred to in a former number of 
Fokest axD Stream. 
The opening of the woodcock season, owmg to an un¬ 
favorable spring, found the birds small and weak on tlie , 
wing, aud no genuine sportsman bad the heart to molest 
them! Later in the season they afforded capital sport, ami 
many fine bags were made. In view of Hie uneoriaiuty of 
our spring season, a change in the law is demanded, look¬ 
ing towards the better preservation of young, half-fledged 
woodcock and ruffed grouse, which are now mercilessly 
Slaughtered not only by the unscrupulous pot-hunter, but 
W persons claiming to be true sportsmen and gentlemen. 
Every old sportsman knows this abuse to be widespread 
and general. Both birds are often i'o&nd in the same 
cover, and tlie weak fledglings are knocked over by tlie 
score. Woodcock and ruffed grouse ate our very best 
game birds, and should he protected witlf jealous care until 
the young are fully matured, when they ,would be found 
in sufficient numbers to make glorious spArt, and bags of 
winch we would be justly proud. Under the present law, 
many birds are killed iu the hot months of July and Au¬ 
gust, the most of which spoil before the weary aud healed 
shooter reaches home, and the faithful dog Is overheated 
and sometimes ruined under the fierce rays of an almost 
tropical sun, as some sportsmen of this city have learned 
by sad experience. Far different would be the case were 
tiie close season for cock extended to September 1st. The 
dictates of common humanity require such a change, aud 
it is to be hoped that all true sportsmen will unitedly labor 
to secure this result, . 
Ruffed grouse are found in considerable numbers in all 
parts of the Btate, especially in tlie vicinity of dense cedar 
swamps, to which they resort for food and shelter during 
the severe storms ot winter. At the expiration of the 
close season, whole broods me found together iu the up¬ 
lands, and furnish admirable sport wilh the aid of steady, 
well-trained setters or pointers. If, however, the buds 
have beeu shot at by woodcock hunters, they are extremely 
wild, and are only found siugJy and in pairs. A great 
many ruffed grouse are shot around Batavia, and Pete 
Tompkins, of the Dean Richmoud club, gets Ins share of 
