82 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



f March 1, 1883. 



anie be butchered and smuggled out of one State into 

 another. Tbe only correclion of the abuse is the absolute 

 prohibition of the sale of game in the close seasons, which 

 generally obtain in the districts of game supply. The 

 Boston and New York markets should not be kept open for 

 months after the Maine and Minnesota open seasons have 

 expired, nor should the St. Louis and Chicago dealers be 

 permitted to pay premiums to the grouse, snarers and deer 

 butchers of neighboring States. It is a much simpler under- 

 taking to slop the open sale of game than to detect its cov- 

 ert illicit transportation. If the market is closed the ship- 

 ping will be stopped. 



A3 we have already said, the Ohicago markelmen's plea 

 is that if they do not sell the game other markets will. New 

 York dealers say the same, and the Boston men reiterate 

 the argument. Now the right thing would be to close all of 

 these markets upon the expiration of the open season for 

 killing game in the respective States. If the supply of 

 game proves too great to be disposed of in the prescribed 

 period, let the dealers refuse to receive it from the pot- 

 hunters. It is a very easy matter for them to regulate tbe 

 supply, They will never do this, so long as they can get 

 legislation to suit them, or can evade the laws themselves 

 or else secure such evasion by other parties. The market- 

 man wants all the game there is, and he wants it all now. 

 A compromise between sportsmen and game dealers means 

 a tinkering of the law to suit this improvident greed of the 

 market. The Boston compromise some years ago proved it ; 

 the New York "refrigerator bill" proved it again; and now 

 the proposed Illinois amendment affords a fresh illustration. 



We have noted with much surprise the proposal to open 

 the Chicago game market for the reception of game illegally 

 shipped irom other States, for that is what the contemplated 

 amendment to the Illinois law practically amounts to, and 

 we trust that the real sportsmen of that State who have no 

 grist of their own to grind at the dealers' mill will stand 

 out most decidedly against the change. 



PROFESSIONAL MEN AND GAME. 



IN our issue of February 15 we printed the plea of a 

 professional man — a clergyman — for summer shooting. 

 Last week was published a reply, written by another pro- 

 fessional man — a professor in one of the prominent educa- 

 tional institutions of the country. To-day we give another 

 letter on the same subject, written by one who belongs to 

 none of the classes named by "Clerieus." Our own views on 

 summer shooting are so well understood that there is no 

 necessity of rehearsing them here. 



We appreciate very fully the value of angling aud shoot 

 ing as rational recreations, in which the hard-working pro 

 fesaional mau of this busy age mry find much-needed recti 

 peration. It would certainly be most fortunate if this 

 class, as well as the working men of all other classes, 

 could sheot deer and birds in mid-summer. But, very un- 

 happily, the laws of nature are irrevocable and cannot be 

 altered in favor of any class, however deserving it may be. 

 If the mother of the tender, helpless fawns be killed, the 

 fawns must perish, no matter whether the man who kills 

 her be a doctor of divinity cr a refugee from the sheriff. 



And — we regret to say it — professional men, as a class, 

 have not and do not conduct themselves while in the woods 

 veiy differently from other people. They certainly have 

 giveu no warrant for allowing to them greater privileges 

 than are permitted to men of humbler stations in society. 

 On the black-list of Maine summer deer-shooters are the 

 names of two men who belong to the same profession with 

 "Clerieus." If they bunted deer and moose when the law 

 forbade, it, what would they not have done had the law been 

 off? 



yortmtjan @-ottri$t 



The New York Law.— A bill to amend the law of 

 New York bag been preparer! aud introduced by the State 

 Association. It provides for several changes in the open 

 seasons, among others permitting July woodcock shoot- 

 ing. As we have already discussed the merits of the sub- 

 ject, we need not go into it here. Another provision ex- 

 tends the season for sale of game through the month of 

 February. There arc abundant reasons why such a propo- 

 sition should be opposed ; we have stated some of these 

 considerations in another place. 



Footi of Fishes. — At the suggestion of Prof. Baird, who 

 desires to have more knowledge concerning the food of our 

 commercial fishes, Mr. E. G. Blackford will institute aseries 

 of investigations into the stomachs of those species which 

 come to him in Fulton Market. To this end he has secured 

 the service of Prof. Henry J. Rice, well known from his 

 experiments in oyster hatching, who will record the con- 

 tents of the stomachs of the fishes, and report upon the food 

 found therein at different seasons. 



FLORIDA. 



Ty HEN winter with his ley hand 

 ' * Has spread o'er all our Northern land 



His cold white robe of snow; 

 When all the woods are hare and brown, 

 And all their feathered songsters flown, 



And fierce the north winds blow. 



When cummer with its joys has fled, 

 Its pleasures o'er, its flowers dead, 



And ice-bound is each stream, 

 Tis then my wandering fancy ilies 

 To a milder land 'neath sunnier skies, 



And of its joys I dream. 



My fancy turns to that bright laud 

 Where Ponce de Leon and his band 



Of Spanish soldiers bold, 

 Sought for the Fount of Youth— a draught 

 Of whose clear waters he who quaffed, 



Would never more grow old. 



Ah, Florida! sweet land of flowers, 

 I stray in thought beneath thy bowers 



Of dark moss-mantled pines; 

 1 breathe the heavy, rich perfume 

 Of flowers in perennial bloom, 



Aud ever fragrant vines. 



Iu those embowered vales is heard 

 The note of many a bright-plumed blriJ 



In Northern climes unknown ; 

 Those dark lagoon, are the safe lair 

 Of many a creature strange and rare, 



That haunt their depths alone. 



Beside St. John's slow moving stream 

 Low cots and broad white mansions gleam 



'Mid patms and orange trees; 

 And in the low and fertile plain, 

 Wide fields of green and rustling cane 



Bend to the balmy breeze. 



Thy broad sea shores in thought I tread, 

 And now throngh tangled swamps I thread 



My slow and toilsome w ay ; 

 Or. happier thought, in iny light boat 

 Upon thy crystal lakes I float. 



And catch the finny prey. 



■Still fate my waiting fortune binds 

 To regions of harsh chilling winds, 



Where frost rules hah* the year, 

 And yet methinks some day I'll see 

 That land, wash d by a Southern sea— 



That land to fancy dear. 



Norman B. Dkesser. 



The Carver-Bogardtjs Match.— It has been held by 

 very many that while Dr. Carver was a phenomenal rifle 

 shot, he could not hold his own in a match with Capt. 

 Bogardus at the traps. The result of the Louisville shoot- 

 ing showed pretty conclusively that the Doctor knows how 

 to hold a gun as well as a rifle. A full report of tbe event 

 will be found on another page. 



NIMROD IN THE NORTH. 



BT LIETJT. FREU'K SCHWATKA. V. S. AEJII. 



IV.— Nlmrod with a Shotgun,— Part Two. 



IN no place in the world is aquatic life so abundant as in 

 the polar regions during the summer. The instance 1 

 have given of the eiders in Terror Bay is but one in many 

 constantly encountered in polar literature. The little auks, 

 or rotges, says a writer who has been in Spitzbergen, are so 

 numerous that he has frequently seen an uninterrupted line 

 of them extending to a distance <?f more than three miles, 

 and so close together that thirty have fallen at one shot. 

 This living column might be about six yards broad and as 

 many deep, so that, allowing sixteen birds to a cubic yard, 

 there would be four millions of these little creatures on the 

 wing at one time. This number may appear greatly ex- 

 aggerated, but when we are told that these auks congregate 

 in such swarms as to darken the air like a passing cloud, 

 and that their chorus is heard distinctly at a distance of 

 four or five miles, these numbers do not appear so great. 



The dovekies are the most numerous of the summer ducks 

 in the northern part of the bay, and they arc especially 

 thick about Depot Island, whose Esquimau name is Pik- 

 ke-u-lik, meaning the island of birds' nests, and where the 

 dovekies deposit their greenish-blotched eggs in innumerable 

 quantities. They seem to make no nest whatever, but crawl 

 in under the broken granite boulders and lay in such con- 

 cealed places that a white man will look over a large tract 

 and find nothing, and a few Innuit children will follow and 

 fill their hands and pockets. The first year, '78, we were 

 too late for their eggs, which are here collected in countless 

 scores in July; but that same year, on the 5th of September, 

 we visited Pikkeulik, and some of the Esquimaux we had 

 with us collected about fifty of the squabs they caught in 

 the rocks, and then old enough to eat, and gave them to us. 

 Colonel Gilder and I attempted to kill a few of the older 

 ones with our shotguns, but with less success, as they soon 

 scampered some two or three hundred yards out to sea, 

 where they resolutely persisted in renaming while we were 

 on the island. 



While on the "Polaris" expedition, Joe, who had beeu 

 out hunting in February, reported seeing three doveKies in 

 the open water, saying that they were the young of last 

 year, and that it was well known among the Esquimaux 

 that this species of bird spent their first winter in tbe Arctic 

 regions. Joe spoke to me of this also, and added that when 

 they remaiu they turn almost white like the ptarmigan. I 

 have never seen any in the winter, but my journeys have 

 been such that they could easily have escaped my observa- 

 tion. The skin of their feet and legs is of a beautiful bright 

 red, and quite noticeable when they arc silting on the rocks 

 near the shore. The native women take their feet, as well 

 as those of other web-footed birds, remove the bones, inflate 

 them, and allow them to remain so until dry, when they are 

 filled with rendered reindeer tallow (iooclnon) which is then 

 dealt out to their children as candy. 



The Esquimaux take great pleasure in hunting small game 

 without a shotgun, and it must be the true spirit of the 

 Nimrod that prompts them, for the returns in pounds of 

 food can in no way remunerate them for the time lost and 

 cost of powder ana shot. I have several times seen Esqui- 

 maux have the preference of shot or bullets in exchange for 

 some article they desired to trade, and they would invari- 

 ably choose the former, with which they would probably 

 not secure a dozen ducks, while with the latter they could 

 certainly secure as many reindeer, walrus or musk-oxen. 



Toolooah enjoyed a good duck-hunting tour with all tin; 

 eagerness of an amateur in the ait. 



We will not speak of the phalaropes, the dabehieks, the 

 grebes, the sandpipers, the gulls, the snipe and the whatnot 

 of the water-loving varieties of birds, for we only saw them 

 here and there without adding any knowledge of their hab- 

 its, and seldom added any of them to our "bags." The 

 Esquimaux of some localities that I visited, separate the 

 year into moous instead of months, (that is about thirteen 

 mouths) and each one is named after some event conspicu- 

 ous -at the same, as Ihe arrival or departure of some of the 

 migratory birds, the goose mouth, the dovekie month, and 

 so lorth. 



To the sportsman who finds pleasure in pursuing the 

 partridge, the pheasant, the prairie chicken, or grouse, 

 probably the Arctic grouse or ptarmigan would be his first 

 effort wilh the shotgun as soon as they put in their appear- 

 ance, for they seem to be exceedingly "hard to find in sum . 

 mer. At, this season of the year the ptarmigan's plumage is 

 of a pale brown color, mottled with smali bars and dusky 

 spots. The head and neck are marked with broad bars of 

 black, rust color and white, tbe wings and belly being of 

 the latter color. 1 noticed, while on our sledge journey, 

 that it was particularly the stormy weather that brought iis 

 in contact with the many bands of ptarmigan who seem to 

 enjoy this sort of bluster; and they cheered the dreary 

 waste of winter when nearly all other life had taken up its 

 journey for the more congenial South. With his brother of 

 the black coat — the Arctic raven — he is the only living 

 winged thing that remains on the land to cheer the deep 

 Arctic winter. Long after the greal Bocks of dovekies, the 

 noisy loons and stately flying btirgomaslet gulls have de- 

 parted from the North, 'the ptarmigan may be found dili 

 gently searching the harren rugged hilltops for his daily 

 food. 



In the summer time or breeding season, they are rarely 

 seen, and thetrhavc a plumage so much like the prevailing 

 color of the mossy plains as to afford I hem splendid protec- 

 tion. They are then only seen singly or at most in pairs, 

 but as winter time approaches they Hock together often in 

 bands of hundreds; their plumage is then of a pure white, 

 and they are so heavy that they waddle along like overfed 

 farm ducks. The sportsman at this time seldom has much 

 trouble in securing ten or fifteen out of a flock, for when 

 frightened they fly but a short distance, and for five or six 

 limes atter firing they will allow him to approach quite 

 closely. Where' hunted considerably with firearms, how- 

 ever, they bi come as shy as any pi the grouse family in 

 warmer climes. They are seldom hunted by the Esquimaux 

 unless the opportunities are brought directly before them 

 while in other pursuits. I have often seen the small boys 

 using them for a target when practicing with bows and 

 arrows, and they were occasionally successful in securing 

 one in this way, driving them "along the ground like 

 so many chickens in the poultry yard. "It is sajd 

 that the Greenland natives hold the" idea that ptarmi- 

 gan, in order to provide for their winter food, garner in a 

 supply of berries into the hollows of rocks, and during very 

 severe cold they form retreats under Ihe snow and hunch 

 together to keep warm. This would hardly coincide with the 

 facts that I have seen them seeking their food at all months 

 of the year, and at all temperatures of the winter, unless 

 their habits vary in the two countries. They are excellent 

 food and taste very much like the representatives r*f their 

 species in the lower zones. I have never heard them utter 

 any cay baTond a. coarse clucking when waddling along on 

 the ground" in front of a person, and my queries fiom tbe 

 natives failed to extend my information. 1 have noted this 

 simply because it has been represented that this bird has 

 a most singular and extraordinary voice, which it exerts 

 only in the nighttime, avnd instances are given when super- 

 stitions people have been frightened beyond measure by 

 hearing it. 8o white is the plumage of these northern grouse 

 that when squatting in the snow a person even searching 

 for them may get within two or three yards before lie sees 

 them, if he be not apprised of their position even then, by 

 their rapid woodcock-like whir of their retreat. Especially 

 is this the case in the cold, blustering, snowy weather, when 

 they are the most likely to be seen. 



But bird-life is not the only kind of game iu (lie frigid 

 zone that furnishes food and fun for the double-barreled 

 smooth-bore. There is the Arctic hare, the fox, the lem- 

 ming, and a few other four-footed but small fellows, which 

 are valuable for palate or peltry, and generally the most 

 sagacious of all. Every now and then when on 'our sledge 

 journeys the dogs, half asleep as they toiled away at their 

 traces,"would suddenly prick up their cars, and if the sledge 

 were light, dash forward after some unknown object which 

 would finally res»lve itself into some insignificant rabbit 

 trail, and as this boreal bunny is somewhat predisposed to 

 the stormiest of weather, like "the ptarmigan, he will often 

 lead a team of dogs a merry run if the driver does not stop 

 tnem, or imagines they are on the scent of reindeer, as he 

 often does, t always found the rabbits living in the crevices 

 Of the boulders, heaped over each other, the covering snow 

 forming a little igloo, which, with their immense coat of 

 hair, is sufficient to protect them in the coldest weather, I 

 have leen them in all months of the year, aud if they store 

 up a winter's supply of food (which t do not believe), they 

 are very busy in the winter maintaining it by accessions 

 from other quarters. While probably a trifle smaller than 

 the jack rabbit of the American plains in quantity of meat, 

 he is his peer in size, if not larger in the winter, when he 

 looks like a great bundle of while feathers. He is not eaten 

 so much by Ike natives as by the wild animals, the foxes, 

 wolves, and wolverines. 



The Arctic fox is much smalle than the common variety 

 we are used to seeing at home, aud equally sagacious. I 

 have seen several, but in some way never managed to outwit 

 one so far as to procure his pelt. He was either too far to 

 reach with the scattering argument of a shotgun or too 

 agile for a rifle in anybody's hands less active than those of 

 Dr. Carver's. It is not often that the natives get one by 

 shooting, but they manage to trap large quantities for their 

 skins, which they trade to the Arctic whalemen, altnough 

 their meat is not rejected if the larder is short. Even some 

 Arctic explorers have pronounced their meat worthy of the 

 table, and probably it may be by comparison when long 

 isolated from all sorts of fresh meat, The traps of the 

 natives are simply slabB of ice with the common figure 4 

 spring, and when they visit the traps at rare intervals, the 

 slab tails on the top of a small rectangular pen of ice, thus 

 enclosing reynard alive, as otherwise when crushed and 

 allowed to lie the skin in a few hours becomes worth- 

 less and the fur pulls out. These ice-iraps were 

 often seen about Hudson's Bay, On King William's 

 Land the Netechilluks built pens of the slabs of 



