24 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 8, 1883. 



mum that he could butcher and otherwiie dispose of in his 

 stone caches, which were now making the surrounding local- 

 ity look like a well-settled but dilapidated cemetery, With 

 this wholesale slaughter of the reindeer came all the known 

 carnivorous scavengers of the Arctic — the foxes, the wolves, 

 the wolverines, and the Netsohilluk Esquimaux; the last 

 tlie most numerous and troublesome of the whole lot. We 

 put them to use scraping reindeer skins and making our 

 winter skiu clothing and bedding, and thus extracted some 

 small compeusatioiffor the v, st quantities of moat that dis- 

 appeared down their throats, which seemed to have a capa- 

 city second only to Communipaw itself. 



The Netsckil'luks say that in about a week or ten days af (ti- 

 the King William Land reindeer have crossed over, another 

 large batch of straggling herds put in their appearance on 

 their southward migration, although this was not noticeable 

 to us in the early winter of '79 while we were then,' . If so, 

 it would show" them to be the reindeer of Boothia and 

 North Somerset, that have been thus detained by the later 

 freezing of James Ross's Channel, a much wider strait than 

 Simpson's, although these animals could have passed on to 

 the mainland by the Boothia Isthmus. During the time 

 these tortuous channels, separating the many islands of the 

 Parry Archipelago are frozen over, 1 know that the ruin- 

 deer cross freely from one to another, but I do not believe, 

 reasoning from the well known locality of their trails, that 

 they ever cross unless the objective land he in frill sight; that 

 is, they have no belter instinct than their eyes. "Even in 

 returning they take the most roundabout as well as the most 

 direct ways to reach their northern grazing grounds, and it 

 is not at all unlikely that a reindeer born in" Boothia may 

 graze his second summer on Kins William's Laud, and Ins 

 third on Baring Island and so on. This is proven by the 

 testimony of the natives of these regions, who say that there 

 is a great disparity in the numbers that may visit ih.niat 

 different years, and whose northward migrations were [It ter- 

 miucd, no doubt, by some protracted storm, either forcing 

 them into one locality or denuding it according to its direc- 

 tion, intensity and duration. The Esquimaux fold me that 

 the reindeer "graze with the wind in their travelings, but 1 

 have so often seen them feeding against it, and' also at 

 other angles in regard to it, that I airi inclined to think that 

 it can not be put down as an invariable rule. I think it 

 probable that when the seasons have determined their 

 boreal or austral migrations, the wind has but little effect 

 except. to deviate them through small angles as already ex- 

 plained, but when these travelings have ceased, the wind, 

 if uncomfortable from damp or chilliness, mav influence 

 their local migrations so as to make them obey this law, 

 if it be one, as they claim. 



We started on our return journey on the 8th of Novem- 

 ber, and did not see auy reindeer (as we have not seen any 

 since October 7) until the 13th of December, an interval of 

 sixty-six days, when we saw two, who met their fate under 

 such peculiar circumstances that I must record it. We had 

 just left the Dangerous Rapids, at the mouth of Back's 

 Great Fish River, a few miles, when the natives of the ad- 

 vance sledgo of the three reported luk-too (reindeer) in sight, 

 and wc soon saw two animals about a mile away, trotting 

 leisurely from us along the west hank of the river. Before 

 ua was a large island in the river, and as it was evident that 

 their movements would soon bring them behind it, Too- 

 looah ran like a race-horse to reach its further end to cut 

 them off, hiding himself behind its sheltering bank opposite 

 to the deer, some of the other hunters following directly on 

 their trail and stringing themselves along the island. When 

 the sledges readied the nearer end of the island, about a 

 mile and a half in length, they were stopped to await the 

 result. Hardly had thev done" so when a shot was heard 

 from Toolooah, and we all anxiously waited to hear the 

 second or more, or see the other deer to sec if he would run 

 toward some of the many hunters, for you may rest assured 

 we were eager to get both, so long had we been without 

 fresh venison; but nothing was seen of him, although it 

 seemed impossible, for him to get away without again com- 

 ing into view. The whole matter was soon explained by 

 Toolooah, who came in to get the dogs, and reported that 

 he had killed both at one shot. This had been done twelve 

 other times by Toolooah, and each time voted as singular 

 enough, but when we had been absent from this kind of 

 game for over two months, and then, stumbling on a 

 couple, to annihilate them at a single discharge, seemed 

 almost too wonderful to believe. 1 have said that Toolooah 

 has done this wonderful feat a great number of times, and 

 ] do not wish to be misuuderstood that I mean he killed one 

 and wounded another so it was gotten, or any combination 

 of that character, but that these killings were direct, so 

 that uo further shooting was needed. Once he killed three, 

 and the number of times he at one shot killed one and 

 wouuded another so that it could afterward be slain was 

 not recorded. 



The 2d of January Toolooah killed two reindeer, the ther- 

 mometer showing — 08' F., and the next day brought them 

 into camp, the thermometer showing — 71° F." the coldest we 

 recorded on the trip. 1 note it to show that American arms 

 properlv cared for will work under any temperature, At 

 — 7P P., or 103" below freezing, everything animate bccoi 

 enveloped in a mist that will soon obscure them, if they stop 

 to rest, from a person at a distance, but that makes their 

 presence doubly certain from this very sign. Herds of rein- 

 deer and musk-oxen can be located by this means at a dis- 

 tance of five or six miles, and at very favorable heights two 

 or three times that distance. The native hunters claim that 

 even at these extreme lengths they can tell the difference 

 tween the two kinds of animals by some varying peculiar- 

 ities of the va; ors. Reindeer chased by dogs look like so 

 many puffing locomotives. 



The end of February saw us almost home. We had met 

 a Kinnepetoo Esquimau from Chesterfield Inlet, who told 

 us coat Depot Island was but three days' journey away if 

 we tooklight sledges, and we accordingly left all our he'avy 

 stuff with him in order to get through, and purchased two 

 days' reindeer me it of him to complete the journey, for 

 none would be found on the way, he said. Our three' days 

 lengthened into five, and a terribly stormy day on the fifth 

 saw us not yet home, out of meat, and no sign of reindeer 

 in the country. Five hunters sallied forth in the storm and 

 soon four returned stating that it was folly to hunt in such 

 weather with such prospects. At dark Toolooah came in. 

 He had found the tracks of three deer five or six miles south 

 of camp, followed them on a circle which brought him due 

 north of our igloos, there overtook them and killed them 

 all, having followed their trail the whole distance at a fair 

 run, Of such stnfl' was my best hunter made who that day 

 closed his total score for the sledge Journey at 236 reindeer 

 out of a grand total of 522 killed by all the members on the 

 expedition. 



AFTER QUAIL. 



IF we had been inhabitants of another sphere we couldn't 

 have crested greater curiosity— George and 1 and Busy 

 —than we did as we alighted from the emigrant train that 

 morning. Peru was a little, hamlet on a great railroad, but 

 of such small consequence thai the great railroad permitted 

 only one train a. day to stop there. Indeed, the place was so 

 little known, even in the pretentious city not twenty miles 

 away, that when George and I had mentioned our proposed 

 excursion thither, one-half of our fellow sportsmen had never 

 heard of the place, and the other half said "Pooh! you won't 

 get anything there. Why, I never even heard of anyone 

 going there to hunt." But my friend George has a remark- 

 ably observant eye, two of lb, in, in fact, and when these 

 eyes roamed over a certain patch of ground in the momen- 

 tary view afforded by the car window of the lightning ex- 

 press, George said. "That looks like quail." and we were to- 

 day intent upon verifying George's surmise. 



As the train puffed away out of sight around a curve the 

 open-mouthed countenances of the Peruvians gradually re- 

 laxed from their amazed stare, and a. yellow dog that had 

 crouched by the platform made a. sheepish attempt to form 

 an acquaintance with Busy, but retired in dismay at her 

 warning growl. 



"Moruin', stranger," ventured one of the group, at length. 



"Good morning, my friend,'' said George, "will you tell 

 me if there, is any game to be killed hereabouts?" 



"Wall, now, I dunno," drawled the countryman, "I guess 

 not much wuth braggin' on, but there's Jim Scclv, lcYmin' 

 agin them fence rails, he's game constable, and 'might be 

 able to tell ye. Hey, yon, Mint! Here's some city fellers 

 that want to know if they's any game hereabouts," 



Jim, at this greeting, ceased his occupation of whittling a 

 pine stick, and, expectorating a stream of tobacco juice, re- 

 plied with great dignity, as becoming one whose political 

 office raised him above his fellows: 



'Game? In course they's game enough, if ye know how 

 to git it. They's 'coons, an' they's gray squirrels, an' they's 

 foxes, an' down to Tamarack Holler they's mushrats. But 

 you fellers won't git none rigged in them fixin's, now I tell 

 ye. Is thai t.hnr a good 'coon dog?" contemptuously indi- 

 cating Busy by a squirt of tobacco juice in her direction. 

 'Well, no," said George, winking at me, "not exactly a 

 m dog, but she's some on muskrats." 

 Uinph!" sneered the oracle, "I wouldn't trade Tiger 

 there for a hull drove of city dogs. Take him 'n dad's old rifle 

 —a good twelve pound of "solid iron— an' if they's fur in 

 Seneky county, you kin git it," 



"Well." said George, ''we'll do ourbest, anyhow. By the 

 way, how about, the. garni; laws down here? ' I'd like to get 

 posted, so as not to kill anything out, of season." 



"Oh, wal, I dunno." hesitated the game constable, "don't 

 kill no little birds, and don't set. no bresh afire, nor leave no 

 fence Tails down, an' the law won't tech ye." 



Thanking our informant for his elucidation of the Peru 

 game, laws, we shouldered guns and clambered over the hills 

 back of the railroad toward George's expected quail ground. 

 Now-, Bub," quoth my friend," "you've been quail hunt- 

 , a dozen times more or less, and ought to know a good 

 deal about it by this time. From this hill lop you can see 

 what 1 picked out as a likely quail ground. Now, in your 

 opinion, how had wc best proceed to get the most birds in 

 the least time?" 



Well I should cross this clover meadow, and work Busy 

 over every foot of stubble in the next field, first of all." 



'I fear your quail hunting hasn't taught yon much thus 

 far. But. the trouble is, you don't study these matters. 

 Now, what kind of weather have we had for a few days 

 back'/" 



'Cold, wdth occasional rains and flurries of snow." 



'Right. Now, cptail aren't at all partial to exposed places 

 in that sort of weather. To be sure, to-day, although cold, 



clear, but I've found that Bob White generally waits in 

 the timber a day or two after the storm, to see if" if is really 

 a clear-up, or only making believe. So you needn't put a 

 shell in while we're crossing this clover and that stubble 

 field, for no quail will feed "there to-day." 



' 'But, George, just look at Busy. She's struck a, hot scent , 

 by her actions." 

 * "Yes, she's struck a scent, but no birds. This bunch of 

 thick clover, in a nook out of reach of the wind, is where a 

 covey roosted last night. Sec, you can count the exact 

 number of birds. Fourteen, isn't it? All in a circle, you 

 see, so that, in case of a surprise, one's flight won't impede 

 another's. Now, the company that lodged here last night 

 will most likely be found in that scrubby patch of timber 

 beyond this stubble field. It may be that we'll have hard 

 work to put them up, as they'll run a hundred yards ahead 

 of a dog sometimes m limber. But I have faith in old Busy, 

 and she's been hunted on quail so many times that she knows 

 their tricks even better than her master, I think." 



Tlu "timber" was a patch of land that had been partially 

 cleared some years before, and was now covered over with 

 a tangled mass of brush and briery shrubs, some higher 

 than a man's head, but the major part reaching hardly to 

 the shoulder. It w T as uninviting ground for a setter, hut 

 Busy's small, lithe body was soon working in and out in 

 the thickest tangle. Her intelligence was simply marvel- 

 lous. After striking the scent, and finding that, 'the birds 

 were running swiftly away from her, she seemed to use 

 every endeavor to turn them toward the open field slose by, 

 and ."evidently understanding that we were unable to follow 

 her course through the thick undergrowth, she often reared 

 aloft on her hind legs, and looked back at, us inquiringly. 



"Now, Bnb, if they haven't doubled on her like a bare, 

 as. they will do when'a dog is hunting on strategic priuci- 

 pk s, and not altogether from scent, we must hurry into the 

 open, and skirt aiong the border, where we'll probably put 

 'em up ourselves. This way, all ready!" 



Whir-r-r! right in our very faces rose the covey. Firing 

 too soon, my first barrel made a clean miss, and one bird 

 fell to my second; while cooler George, biding his time, 

 dropped three to his gun. The frightened covey separated 

 in wisps, and flew in various directions, 



"No easy job to pick up those .scattered fellows," said 

 George, taking the last retrieved bird from Busy's careful 

 mouth. "They"ll lie so close and still that the dog with the 

 finest nose can't scent 'em. That's what some old hunters 

 call ' withholding scent.' Mark any down in your direc- 

 tion?" 



"Yes, near that brush pile standing alone." 



"Well, we'll tackle that first, as it's near by. Hie on, 

 Busy!" 



The birds had evidently run after alighting, as Busy fol- 

 lowed the scent to the brush pile, where she drew down on 

 a staunch point. George, after duly cautioning me, gave 

 1 the brush a slight kick. A siugle' quail arose, which f 



knocked over. Turning to order Busv to fetch, she was 

 seen to he still pointing the same spot. Another kick 

 brought another quail, with the same result as before. Still 

 Busy had not left her point. Another kick from George, 

 but no bird. 



"She's mistaken this time, George," said I. 



"No, sir!" replied my friend, emphatically; "Old Busy's 

 never mistaken; keep your gun ieady," and he administered 

 several hearty kicks in the dry brush. True enough, out 

 started a third quail, which was grassed at twenty yards, 

 and old Busy at once began retrieving the dead birds. 



"George, will you sell that dog?" asked f. 



"Not for tins whole country. But. there aren't, ten men 

 in A— that have her intelligence and honesty; yes, intel- 

 ligence. Do you mean to tell me t hat it wasn't a 'reasoning 

 power that worked thai covey .out of the timber patch?" 

 and my friend looked fiercely at me, as if a denial on my 

 part were a personal insult. 



Proceeding then to another part of the field, where George 

 had marked down three of the birds, v.e heat back and 

 forth through the high grass and weeds in vain, and even 

 Busy was "unsuccessful. We were about to abandon the 

 search, when out from my very feet sprung a quail, so 

 close f could almost, have knocked it over with my gun 

 barrel, and then another and another. Their unexpected 

 and sudden appearance, one so dose on another, must have 

 "rattled" us, for we both missed our first shots, and I my 

 second, George grassing with his left at a tremendous dis- 

 tance. 



"I'm always ashamed to miss an easy shot when Busy's 

 along," said George, "for just, see how grieved she looks 

 And indeed, from her sympathetic eye and low- 



ered Hag, 1 am half inel 

 beneath her dark coat at our 

 Following a row of rasphe 

 two more, and then ensued a 

 marked with a blank, for not 

 time. In the afternoon, hoi 

 eight birds down in an orchi 

 from a thick patch o 

 ' la 



1 to 



nil, 



a i?3 



she was blushing 



mshes by the fence 

 iod of three hours or more 

 unil did we start in that 

 r. we marked a covey of 



separated by the turnpike 



th. and George with Busv 

 it ion between it. and the 

 vr killed every one of the 



taking the 



timber, by cared 



covey, five falling to my gun, 



"Eighteen bird's," said George, "I guess that will do for 

 tD-<ky. We might get a dozen more' but I'd like to know 

 that there are Bomelefl for our Thanksgiving hunt, and we've 

 got enough for Sunday's diuner at the boarding .house. Let's 

 quit. What d'ye say?" 



"I'm willing,"" said 1; "but meanwhile, suppose we tramp 

 across the river and ask old Jesse at the eel-pot if any ducks 

 have come in the marsh yet." 



".lust what I was going to propose," answered George; 

 and calling Busy to heel, we set out for a six-mile tramp to 

 the river and back. Two more unfortunate quail, rising 

 with others out of the very dooryard of a farmhouse, drop 

 perj to our guns on the way, and' one hare that crossed the 

 road ahead of us on a keen jump was too rash to go unoun- 

 ihed, and I bowled him OVI r. 



"Only got one rabbit, eh?" sarcastically remarked one of 

 the Peruvians that, night while we were awaiting the train, 

 "Oh, in course. I see all them little quails, hut, Lord'a 

 massy, I'd as soon think o' shooting highholders. They ain't 

 enough meat on a dozen o' them to make a pot smell reely 

 iuvitin.'" Sem.ca. ' 



AROUND THE COAST OF FLORIDA. 



TJY Ml. J. A. HENSllAt.T. 



Third Paper. 



ON the day following v 

 uobstay. looked to t 

 everything snug and shir 

 were to make a sail of forty mil 

 below— Ilillsboro' Rive 

 by nine o'clock a fresh 

 Everything was propitious, so we n 

 and put 10 sea. keeping well inshon 

 breakers, to avoid, so tar as possibf 

 Stream, which here flows uorthwar 



As wc passed the beach near the 

 settled portion of Lake Worth 

 in picking up si 



. Tit 

 iviuil 



shrill blast, at which she I 



;htened up the shrouds and 

 apping of blocks, and made 

 i'. for Ihe next, day after we 

 by sea to the' next inlet 

 broke clear and fine, and 

 blowing from the north, 

 nade sail, hoisted anchor, 

 t, just beyond the hue of 



I, the cut rent of the Gulf 

 d at a two knot role 

 trails from the Ihieklicst 

 aw a lady busily engaged 

 zed the eoneh'horn and 

 ioked up and waved her 



pon Jack, Squire, and Skipt 

 with each other in a display of pocket, bunting, 

 foot of Lake Worth we saw, on the beach ridge', ih 

 foriueily occupied by the lluliell family, where Hire 

 before we began our 1ra.mp down the beach to Hay fir 

 Five miles further on is U. K. Life Saving Sla'tion 

 and ten miles further we were abreast of the bold r 



At t 



hi 

 i a great 



f Floric, 



Boca Ratone, whet 

 Ilillsboro'. There 

 the southeast coasl 

 beach, backed bv t 



saw-palinetto, oak scrub 



sional clumps of cahbagi 



a delightful sail, wi i"' 

 of cocoanut palms, whic 

 ing made forty miles in 

 against the current of tin 

 ning out, with but a foot 



No. 8, 

 >oks of 



of the 



id inlet to a hr 

 itnciiess in the appearance of 

 being mostly a narrow white 

 mdy ridge which is covered by 

 sea-grape, and myrtle, with ocea- 

 pi Imsand live oaks. At last, after 

 id Ilillsboro' Inlet, with Its group 

 we reached at, four o'clock," bay- 

 even hours— pretty good sailing 

 Gulf Stream. The tide was run- 

 -i' watet on the bar, so we were 



compelled lo drop anchor aifd wall for the flood tide Skip- 

 per took the canvas boat, the Daisy, and explored the chan- 

 nel, while Guff jumped overboard mid swam ashore to chase 

 'possums, 'coons, and hares. 



i never saw a belter boat for a dingey or tender Iban the 

 Daisy, a Stranahan folding can VSC Canoe, ten feel long and 



weighing bill twenty-five pounds. I frequently passed in 



and out of inlets, through the breaker- and combers, looking 

 for the channels, and never shipped BO much as a pint of 

 Water; for on account of her extreme lightness and buoy - 

 aucy she was always on top, skimming the crests like a sea- 

 gull'. We towed her astern the entire voyage in all kinds of 

 weather and in some pretty rough seas, but Ihe Daisy was 

 always right side up and dry, and moreover, was no detri- 

 ment to our sailing. The wooden skiff, Waif, would not 

 have lived two minutes under conditions where the Daisy 

 floated like a duck, and was always hoisted on deck befor'r 

 sailing. 



The wind hauled around to northeast, blowing fresh and 

 kicking up quite a sea, causing the Kambler lo jump Htid 

 strain at her cable like a tethered mustang. Finally, through 

 the contrary forces of wind and tide, she settled in the 

 trough ami" began rolling fearfully among the breakers, 

 when Skipper and I carried out a stern anchor in the Daisy 

 and hauled her around into the wind, when she lay easier, 

 but poor Jack was already the victim of >mil tie raw and had 



