FOREST AND STREAM. 



325 



"'the haddock fishers have come;" as upon the appearance 

 , on their coast the fish itself was hailed by the fishermen. 

 There is always a demand for haddock, and if the demand 

 should at any time be slack, the^fish are sold for what they 

 will fetch, and then the poorer classes of the population 

 have their day. Generally the Norderney fishermen drive 

 a pretty good trade. Soon the tidy female cooks of Brem- 

 en and of Hamburg, will, basket on arm, grotes and shil- 

 lings in apron pocket, besiege the sloops. The captain, 

 with immovable stolidity, will insist upon his own price 

 and withstand all female blandishments for a reduction, 

 until mutually tired out, the cooks pretend to go away to 

 another sloop, ' 'the captain of which will be more accom- 

 modating." The fisherman lowers his price one grote, and 

 the cook grows more tractable, and is willing to give half 

 a grote more. Then the bargain is struck to their mutual 

 satisfaction, and the haddock is carried home in triumph 



to the kitchen. F. S. 

 -«^*- 



RAIL SHOOTING ON THE DELAWARE. 



♦ 



Editor Forest and Stream: — 



Rail shooting is a sport enjoyed almost exclusively by 

 Philadelphians; certainly in no other city is it followed so 

 regularly, and with so much zest. The season occurs be- 

 tween times, as it were, and after the two long summer 

 months of July and August, when there has been little or 

 no shooting, there is no wonder September 1st is hailed 

 with delight by the sportsman. 



The numerous fiats and islands in the Delaware River at 

 this season of the year are covered with a dense growth of 

 wild oats, or reed, as it is commonly called, shooting up 

 from the oozy bottom, alternately bare and flooded with 

 w r ater three or four feet at each succeeding rise and fall of 

 the tide. As the reed begins to ripen about the middle or 

 latter part of August, the rail arrives and soon becomes 

 very fat, the wild oats imparting to them a delicious flavor 

 when served for the table. Countless numbers of reed, or 

 rice birds, flock 1o the same feeding ground, and, although 

 not proper game, are much persecuted, more on account of 

 the dainty dish they offer than the pleasure they afford in 

 shooting. 



Several varieties of the rail are killed. on the Delaware; 

 by far the most common is the Ballus Carolinus, or sora. 

 The Ballus Virginianus, or red rail, a few years ago was 

 more frequently met with than latterly, and I may say 

 that where fifty soras are killed but one or two red rails 

 are boated. The Ballus Bllegans, or king rail, is compara- 

 tively rare, but at times shot, and the Ballus Crepitans, 

 clapper rail, or mud hen, so far leave's his home of the salt 

 meadows as to sometimes fall a victim to his wanderings. 

 The common coot, likewise of the same family of Ballidce, 

 or rail, maybe considered a rare bird with us also; the 

 writer, however, killed three of them while shooting sora 

 the past October. 



In speaking of the Fulica Nigra, or common American 

 coot, closely allied to the rail, I do not wish it to be con- 

 founded with the Fuligula Americana, or American scoter, 

 a duck, vulgarly called a 'coot by some sportsmen and all 

 baymen. 



At most, rail shooting does not last longer than three 

 hours during a day, and much depends upon the extent of 

 the tide, and indeed a great deal on the wind and moon, for 

 it is well known that a full moon, occurring during the 

 prevalence of a nc rtheasterly or southeasterly wind will 

 bring in "a high water," which is most favorable for rail 

 shooting. The more tide the most rail always. 



I have seen the water in the Delaware River, at the "top 

 of the flood," so low that one could scarcely be pushed 

 more than a rod on the flats, this having been occasioned 

 by the wind blowing from the northwest for the two pre- 

 vious days. An afternoon tide is always the highest, and 

 the sportsman posting himself as regards its state can jump 

 into the cars, and within an hour's time will reach either 

 the Lazaretto, Chester, or Marcus Hook, the three best 

 points on the river. At the Lazaretto (and this place I pre- 

 fer to either of the others) good pushers can be had, and I 

 will venture the Wood brothers, Dick Milt and Bill, Ben 

 Badger and John Brown the best of all, especially as to 

 marking and endurance. At Chester the greater portion 

 of the men who follow pushing in September are of the 

 "dark persuasion," and therefore not so companionable; 

 nevertheless, there are many good ones among them, and 

 one cannot go astray in engaging Sam or Dick Brown, Sam 

 Preston, or Bill Rump, the son of old Bill, long noted for 

 his prowess with the push pole. I should say that Pete Goff 

 is about the only white pusher I would hire at Chester. At 

 Marcus Hook the three Haycocks are fine men ; these are 

 about all I know at "the Hook." I seldom visit it, and do 

 not fancy it much, as the ground is too limited. I have 

 mentioned the names of pushers for the benefit of sports- 

 men of other cities wishing to enjoy the sport, that they 

 may engage by letter to Goff's or Klutz's Hotel, at Chester, 

 or to Graysberry or Wells at the Lazaretto. I will say that 

 to reach the latter place, Moore's station, on the Philadel- 

 phia and Darby branch of the Baltimore and Wilmington 

 Railroad, is the place to get off. where Wells or Graysberry 

 Will be on hand with a team if advised beforehand. 



And now to the modus operandi of rail shooting. Fully 

 equipped, with plenty of ammunition — one hundred and 

 fifty rounds at least— (it is best to have enough, and not run 

 short, as I did on one occasion, contenting myself with 

 "low boat" while my companions were knocking the birds 

 right and left around me). Your pusher will row you I 

 will say from the landing at the Lazaretto, two or three 

 hours before high water, to the upper end of Tinnicum 

 Island, in the centre of the river, where, if the tide is to 



be a high one, the water will allow the boat to be pushed 

 first on to aflat on the Jersey shore called "Clemmel," 

 which, I think, is the lowest on the Delaware. Standing 

 a little forward of amidships you brace yourself while your 

 attendant on the decked end of his clinker built skiff be- 

 gins his work ;. and it is work, this pushing without cessa- 

 tion of man and boat through masses of standing reed for 

 two or three hours. As the skiff is propelled, the rail, 

 forced to fly by the rising tide and the quick approach of 

 the shooter, presents an easy and simple mark, the poleman 

 attracting the sportsman's attention by a "mark right" or 

 "mark left," as the direction may be, the recovering being 

 the most difficult, owing to the great sameness of the sur- 

 rounding reed. But such is the skill of these pushers that 

 I have known five birds to have been killed before one was 

 boated, and all were recovered. Seldom, if ever, is a dead 

 rail lost by any of these men. 



Shifting to grounds that allow the egress of the boat at a 

 later state of the tide the sport is continued, aud shot after 

 shot is had in quick succession, each pusher striving to 

 outdo his fellows, until the ebb drives the shooter from the 

 flats to count his head of birds, and to learn who the lucky 

 "high boat" is, for be it known a great honoris attached 

 to the gun and to the pusher of the fortunate skiff. 



Frequently one hundred rail are killed during a tide. 

 Sometimes one hundred and twenty, and never less than 

 fifty, if ther#is any water at all. It is common while being 

 pushed through the weeds to have shots at teal and larger 

 ducks as they jump from some ditch or pool on the flats, 

 and it is best always to have a spare gun with No. 5 or 6 

 shot for them. As for rail, we use Nos. 9 and 10. A 

 breech-loading gun is invaluable for rail shooting, and 

 the "high boat" is generally found to be the possessor of 

 one of these improved arms. Last season rail were unu- 

 sually plenty, and shooting lasted well into the latter part 

 of October, but we had very few very high tides, one hun- 

 dred and seven rail being the greatest number of birds shot 

 in a single day. 



It has often appeared strange to me that our New York 

 friends do not pay us a visit during the rail season and try 

 one or two days of" it. By taking the through Washington 

 train in the afternoon from Gotham they can be landed at 

 Chester before midnight, and by looking at any Philadel- 

 phia paper can learn at what time it will be high water on 

 the days they wish to shoot, always rating the tide forty 

 minutes earlier at Lazaretto than at the navy yard at Phila- 

 delphia, where the record is made. A letter to Klutz or 

 Goff , Wells or Graysberry, will engage a pusher, and I will 

 warrant a good time and plenty of it. 



English snipe shooting at these points and at this season 

 can be had, and one can alternate his sport by taking one 

 day with the rail and the next with the snipe. 



May our brother sportsmen of New York visit us next 



September is our wish, and may they be "high boat." 



"Homo." 

 ++ 



A CARIBOO HUNTING. 



Quebec, Dec. 15th. 

 Editor Forest and Stream: — 



Possibly a few lines on our great fall sport, Cariboo hunt- 

 ing round Quebec, may not be unacceptable to your readers. 

 Fortunately the early introduction of the game act pre- 

 vented the extinction of our noblest game, though the law 

 came too late to save that lordly king of our forests, the 

 Wapiti. He has disappeared, I fear for ever. But the bar- 

 ren districts in rear of St. Paul Bay, on the lower St. Law- 

 rence are yet the resort of cariboo, (the Woodland Cariboo) in 

 large droves is sometimes as many as five hundred together. 

 Our hunting parties generally leave the city with the first 

 good snow roads, about the 25th November, in order to be 

 back and eat their Christmas dinner at home, when the 

 traditional fat goose i« supplimented with a haunch of juicy 

 venison with apple sauce. 



I can give the results of only one hunting party yet, the 

 others being still on the war path : thus Messrs. J. S. Bud- 

 den, J. Gibb, and M. Molson, are still in the wilderness, as 

 well as Charles V. Temple Esq., of the Highlands, Sillery. 

 The party just returned was composed of Col. D. C. Thom- 

 son, and Mr. McNaughton, both of Quebec, the Hon. Hugh 

 Elliott, son of the Earl of Minto, of Roxburyshire, Scotland, 

 and Mr. Pratt, a sporting gentlemen from Norfolk, Eng- 

 land. They left on the 26th November, drove down to St. 

 Urbain, in winter vehicles, over the rugged north shore 

 mountains a distance of about seventy miles. The recent 

 thaw and rain which set in cut short their operations, and 

 the frost which followed by rendering the snow hard and 

 battle prevented the noiseless and stealthy approach of the 

 game. They had but one really favorable day to hunt, and 

 bagged six cariboo, wounding two others which got away. 

 Col. Thomson used the Spencer cabine and the Eng- 

 lish gentlemen the Martin Henry. 



The cariboo still resort in large droves to feed on the 

 white moss which clothes most luxuriantly the extensive 

 moors in rear of Bay St. Paul, called Les Jardins, and bears 

 are frequently met, attracted by a small red berry, which 

 o-rows on low shrubs much like the low-bush cranberry, 

 and whole moors are studded with this fruit, called by the 

 Indians Des Grains. From St. Urbain the trip is made on 

 snow shoes The guides are harnessed to the wagons 

 laden with provisions, ammunition and camp utensils, and 

 away you go for twenty or thirty miles on foot, over the 

 most mountainous, but picturesque portion of the Lauren- 

 tine chain, amidst some of the wildest and most lovely 

 scenery on th" continent. From the top of the Montague 

 quarree, the eye in the bright morning sun, takes in snow 

 lakes, its valleys and gorges and several other trout lakes, 



sleeping in their northern solitude, with no other sound but 

 the hoarse croack of the raven. Col. Thomson reports the 

 Wolverine (Carcajou or Indian Devil) in extraordinary 

 abundance and so destructive to the game, that the trap- 

 pers meditate using strychnine to poison him. This animal, 

 the Gulo luscus of naturalists, is indeed an odious pest. 



There is no kind' of mischief he has not a paw in, from 

 robbing a beaver dam of its inmates, to stealing the mink 

 and marten from the traps. His powerful claws and 

 strength make him a match for any dog. Polenok, the 

 colonel's guide, tells of an encounter he witnessed between a 

 good sized dog and a Carcajou. The Wolverine having 

 seized hold of the dog by the neck, stood up on his hind 

 legs and set to wrestle with him, holding him tight. Canis 

 howled with rage in the grasp of his tormentor, when on 

 the master going up to the scene the wolvreine scampered 

 off evidently pleased with the joke. 



Last season an old Nimrod wished to initiate a verdant 

 Englishman in one of the peculiarities of the Canadian 

 porcupine. It so happened that the very next day the 

 guide brought in what he styled an unknown beast. 

 Though it did not seem very heavy, its weight was made 

 the subject of a bet, as to whether the Englishman could 

 walk down to the camp with such a weight on his shoul- 

 ders, on snow shoes. After half an hour's trudging along, 

 John Bull complained of a prickly sensation, which he felt 

 through to his chamois coat, and on arriving at the 

 camp he found the flesh of his back was quite raw, the 

 quills had pierced through the bag containing the animal, 

 the leather and under-garments as well. John Bull had 

 found out one of the peculiarities of a dead Canadian por- 

 cupine. 



Cariboo hunting in winter is a great institution with our 

 Quebec sportsmen, it is the sovereign remedy to dispepsia 

 and disorder from the liver. But enough for td-xlay, Mr. 

 Editor, I feel I have even encroached more than I thought 

 on your valuable space. Yours truly, 



J. M. LeMoine. 



OCTOBER IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 



IT was about six o'clock on a beautiful morning in Octo- 

 ber when we started from Martin's Hotel, Lower Sara- 

 nac Lake, for a day's hunt. We had a row of eight miles 

 to get to our hunting ground; hence our early start. The sun 

 soon appeared from behind the mountains, and with their 

 snowj r caps they sparkled like diamonds. The country 

 far and and wide was covered with a veil of snow, and the 

 view from our boat, as it wended its way through the 

 islands of the Saranac, was one of surpassing loveliness. 



After travelling for about four miles on the lake, we en- 

 tered the Saranac river, and passed rapidly down on its 

 smooth bosom for about two miles. Its sides are lined with 

 lofty pines, and as we passed on we would now and then 

 catch a glimpse of the Adirondack range, Mt. Marcy, 

 Whiteface, Seward and all the lesser bights, and close to 

 our right Ampersand, with its single pine on the top. Af- 

 ter a while we reached a place where a broad footpath led 

 from the shore, and having disembarked, we followed this 

 through the woods until we came to a group of five tents ; this 

 was to be our home for a few days; so we left our equip- 

 ments in one of the tents, and then returned to the boats. 

 The starter, with six trusty hounds at his belt, now went 

 off into the woods. We kept on in our boats for about a 

 mile, where we separated for our stations. As I was noth- 

 ing but a boy, my place came about number five in point 

 of excellence, there being four older ones in the party. 

 But luck happened that day on my side, as will be seen. 

 My guide and I watched on a narrow strip of land extend- 

 ing into a large pond. He ascended a tall tree, which had 

 the limbs trimmed, and from its top kept a sharp lookout. 

 We had watched for about two hours, when I heard in the 

 distance that sweet music to the hunter's ear the bay of a 

 hound; nearer it came until it seemed as if the deer were 

 coming directly to us; but no, they swerved to the side, and 

 we heard them going through the woods about a quarter 

 of a mile off. Then the hound ceased barking and we 

 knew the deer must have taken to the water. It was not 

 long before my guide jumped hurriedly down from the 

 tree and told me there was' a big buck over in the pond. 

 We jumped into the boat, and in our hurry to get to open 

 water nearly smashed several trees that were floating near 

 the shore. We had rowed for about half a mile, when we 

 saw the deer swimming with all his might for a marsh that 

 bordered the shore; the water was about three feet deep 

 over this, and it was covered with tall grass that would ef- 

 fectually conceal him ; hence w T e were afraid we would 

 lose him if we did not head him off; but he was too much 

 for us, and just as we came up he entered the marsh, not, 

 however, without my sending a compliment in the way of 

 six buck shot. There was a little open water between the 

 marsh and the shore, and we knew that if we got in there 

 we would cut him off from the shore. Around we went, 

 the perspiration streaming off of us, but no deer could we 

 see. We concluded he was still in the marsh, so we shoved 

 the boat in and through it, hoping to start him. We had 

 gone over nearly all of it, when suddenly my guide ex- 

 claimed, "there he goes;" but we saw, too late, his head 

 disappear behind the tall grass. Back into the open wa- 

 ter, and around we go ; but he espies us, and takes to the 

 marsh again. My guide sent a bullet after him but to no 

 effect. We pushed the boat in where he went in, and soon 

 I saw his head disappear again behind the tall grass; but 

 this time he rose again, and leaped high in air; my left 

 barrel poured its contents into his head; a splash followed 

 and I knew I had hit him. Sure enough, we found the 



