228 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



LOct, 18, 1S83. 



I've been examining your advertising columns closely of 

 late, but I'm going tn give it up now. You .sec, 1 wanted a 

 spaniel, and thought ] could find one in Forest Mscd 



h eam. Sol looted, Well, there were dogs enough to 

 choose from, rant was certain. Hero were pups out ofipv 

 ported parents, dogs ilmt had won first ai heaven only knows 

 how many bench shows, beautifully matted specimens of 

 "the most fashionable blood,' - dogs warranted to have *the 

 proper testae and color of coat," dogs with "authenticated 

 pedigrees." and such names as Emperor William. Psyche 11.. 

 Dashing Sovereign, etc., etc. When 1 got to these names, I 

 gave it up. I pictured to myself how it would seem to be 

 chasing a refractory dog through the fields calling; "Charge, 

 Emperor William!" or "To-bo. Dashing Soverciau!" or 

 ••Here, Sikey Second, Sikey Second!" And all this "ina 

 ported parents" and "authenticated pedigree" business! 

 Won't a dog, whose father was born in Jersey, sceul a quail 

 as far as one whose sire was a Johnny Bull? And as for 

 pedigree, all I want to know about a pup's ancestry is that 

 his lather and mother were hunters, and then I'm 'sure the 

 pup will be. Will a spaniel of fashionable blood and "the 

 proper color of coat," "fetch" from land and water any 

 better for these characteristics? And will a dog, puffed up 

 with the vanity of a dozen bench show ribbons, cat ordinary 

 oal.-inush when in a long camp? I am a plain, old-fashioned 

 man. and il anybodl tuft gol a plain, old-fash ior.nl dog be 



aits to sell, one thai will h nt. fetch, cat plain grub, and 

 answer to a plain, old-fashioned name like Tom, Bill or Jim, 

 he may find a purchaser in Seneca. 



(The editor can measure the above ad. as nonpareil, and 

 charge me twenty-five cents per line for the same. I wouldn't 

 beat a poor newspaper man out of even a live-line ad.) 



PROFESSIONAL MEN AND GAME. 



Editor I 'o-f' ■< • »d ! Vveafth' 



Your correspondent "Olibo." in his late article under the 

 above caption, says of the lourisfs whom be thinks should 

 he permitted lo kill game, that "that class are gentlemerj, 

 and can bt safely trusted to kill no more game than is neces- 

 sary, and this number is not so large as to make any serious 

 aroadson our game." As "Olibo" hails from IS ew Haven. 

 I will give a few fads as to how gentlemen from that city 

 treat our game. Last fall a gentleman connected with the 

 faculty of Yale College and a friend of his, in one evening in 

 September, shol down three moose all standing together. 

 Within forty-eight hours two other gentlemen shot three 



hi ittnil itrwnn. Several of these moose had no 



horns-, but one had a fair-sized set. The hides they either 

 gave to the guides or turned them in toward their' wages. 

 The meat they left to rot. And these men were not pot- 

 hunters, or poachers, or "trout or fame hoes," but gentle- 

 men? And Ibis is Ihe way in which gentlemen ate accus- 

 tomed lo "eke out their scanty supplies." Can any man 

 believe it was necessary to waste" fully a ion and a half 'of the 

 best meat ever tnadcV And yet "Olibo" says such gentle- 

 men can be safely trusted'. But after doing the mischief 

 were tlav willing lo have il known and pay their tine like 

 men? iNu; they left their plunder and bad their guides 

 carrv them more than Seventy miles miles to Kiuco. and 

 then left for home. They were clean-handed, there was no 

 taint of blood on them. But the guides were hired to go 

 back and take the stuff down the oast branch of. the Penob- 

 scot, 30 as to enter the settlements after October 1, and then 

 - in] the horns on lo them. This is DO fancy sketch, as the 

 Writer Saw and handled the hides and horns of these six 

 moose, and also of a caribou, all killed in close time by 

 these men. Neither is it a solitary case, as a brother of this 

 same professor .and his companion the year before killed a 

 moose arid a caribou illegally. Neither can they say I rut h- 

 fully that they gave the meat to the guides, and that they 

 dried and saved" it, as the writer saw ah' the meat the guides 

 brought home, less than tifly pouudsof mouldy Stuff, Utterly 

 untit'to eat. If "Olibo" cares to dispute these statements, 

 the writer can give names and places. 



" Olibo "also says if is bardlv reasonable to snppose " that 

 professional men,' whose duties ate such, that if they go 

 into the woods at all they must go during close time, and to 

 manv of whom a trip into the woods is literally a new lease 

 of life, will respect a series (if statutes enacted by the average 

 State Legislature." Does " Olibo " consider the example he 

 is setting when he proposes to violate State laws which do 

 not please him, on the ground that they are passed by " an 

 average" State Legislature? By whom arc all State laws 

 passed'.' If a man can violate otic which does not suit him, 

 why may not anv other man break any other lawwhich does 

 not'please trim'/ ' if gentlemen set tile example Di Is ■■: A 1] \ ftk- 

 ing. why should not what are termed I he vicious classes 

 break anv law which interferes with their desfresl The 

 true way 'is, to obey all laws, until other laws are passed. 

 " Olibo'" also proposes for a law to be " framed " which will 

 permit his class, "on presentation of proper papers to the 

 irame commissioners of an v State, and perhaps on pavment 

 of a fee. to take what they need. This is decidedly cool ; 

 that a certain class, either by persuasion, or purchase, shall 

 ht.ve liberty to break laws which others are expected lo 

 obey. The' laws of the State of Maine are made for the 

 rich and poor alike, and we believe we have commissioners 

 who will see litem fairly enforced, till the people sec fit to 

 change them, and we do not intend for outside money to 

 have the power to dictate as to what those laws shall be. In 

 the meantime " Olibo." and all other gentlemen who I . 

 wish t" hunt in our Slate, will be cordially received, and 

 welcome to all the. privilege* which we natives enjoy— but 

 if there ate any lo whom "a trip in the woods is literally a 

 new lease of 'life." and who cannot take that trip without 

 breaking our laws, and wasting our game, then I believe it 

 is better to let them die at home. 



There is a great outcry by various ones about the poachers 

 and pot-hunters who ki'l nioose and caribou for their hides. 

 The writer is as well situated as any one in Maine to know 

 about who kill the moose. Il is certain Unit for the last live 

 or six years fully three-fourths of all killed between Aug. 1 

 and Oca. 1 have" been killed by non residents, and fully half 

 bv gentlemen who hire guides. The meat of these was 

 Wailed, After January the Tobiqtie and Canada Indians 

 and Canadian French 'have killed some for their hides, as 

 Uiese gentlemen didin the fall. Residents also have killed 

 a few, not more in all than were killed by gentlemen in the 

 fall, and in about all cases have saved the meat, eithei 

 sell to the lumbermen or for their families. In mo I of 

 these cases those who have done this have been guides for 

 these -eutlemen who killed illegally in Ihe fall. II is hard 

 for them to sec why, if rich men from outside the Slate- can 

 kill game illegal! v to waste it, Ihe poorer ones who are resi- 

 e cannot kill it and save it. While I would inno man- 



ner justify them for killing illegally, to save both meat and 

 hides, it would look to anv fair-minded man as if the out- 

 siders who kill to waste are really the "poachers." The 

 writer can show five cases where gentlemen from outside the 

 State have killed moose illegally to waste where they can 

 show one where residents have done it. It is not done by 

 residents, as the meat is of far more value to the killers than 

 the hides. 1 have also noticed that most of those gentlemen 

 not above selling the lodes to the guides to help "eke 

 oul" Ihe expenses of 'the trip so that if they do not kill them 

 for the hides thee can onl\ claim to kill for the mere' sake of 

 killing. 



If gentlemen will not come here and demoralize our guides 

 by setting them bad examples, we can stop all illegal killing 

 in two years. Maine. 



Bangob, Me., Get. 11, 1BU3, 



SILVER SPRING WOODS. 



TM1AT old spring, how well I remember it! How many 

 limes in bygone days have I lifted the old wood cover 

 with its rudely' carved initials, and drunk from the battered 

 pewter cup hanging there, what seemed to me the purest, 

 sweetest water in the world. Many a day has passed by 

 since lasl I dipped the cup into its crystal waters, but still do 

 I remember just how good that water tasted, aud the grand 

 old pines and hemlocks bending lovingly over il seemed to 

 me to impart such a taste as no other wa'ter ever had. Often 

 1 wonder how lime has dealt wilh it, if the old spring yet 

 remains, if those great trees still sigh above il in the breeze. 

 It seems to me as I look back upon my boyhood's pleasures, 

 upon the many days when I rambled through those woods, 

 that never sha'll 1 know again such'suprerne'delight as 1 then 

 experienced. Now, every one almost has his tine hammer- 

 less breech-loader, his faithful setter, his line horses; now 

 every "gentleman" can boast of the many- grouse he. has 

 Stopped >n mid-air, and can tell just how that quail came 

 down with wing outspread, but none, I fancy, ever feel 

 happier in their "triumphs than I felt then, rambling through 

 "Silver Spring Woods," with my single-barreled mu/zle- 

 loader, whose ramrod would stick at just I he wrong moment 

 while I watched for some "gray" to show himself. 



The city boy of to-day ,"1 fancy, would deem it "poor 

 fun" indeed to ciawl out of bed at four o'clock of a cold 

 autumn morning, to take his gun and a snatch of something 

 for dinner in his game bag, and tramp off into the country 

 wilh one true companion, squirrel shooting. 



Yet manv were the days when I did that, many the day 

 when tramping home hi the fast gathering dusk with perhaps 

 only one squirrel in mv bag, I could yet look back and say 

 the'day bad been welfspent. 



I think in those times when still-hunting squirrels was the 

 height of our ambition, we learned to love nature more, to 

 feel more deeply the great soothing calm of her presence 

 while we lay. scarcely daring to move, under some wide- 

 spreading chestnut tree, than nowadays men who can leave 

 their offices of an afternoon, take their fast .roadsters and 

 their setters, and drive off iuto the country after partridges 

 or quail. 



To us the fringed gentians in the meadow were even a 



greater pleasure than a squirrel in the bag. Never was day 



igbtly begun till we had visited the meadow aud plucked a 



Av to carry with us. True, they soou closed and faded, 



but still they were a source of never-failing delight. 



How Well do I see just bow that meadow looked, and the 

 low woods just beyond. There it was that I shot tit the first 

 wild rabbit that I "ever saw. How nimbly he slipped under 

 that old log just, in time lo escape the eh arse of which the 

 log got the full benefit 



And just the other side the brook in those pine woods, I 

 shot my first partridge. With what a whir he whizzed up 

 from the dry leaves across the old lane and inlc the pines. 

 How rnv hearl thumped as 1 stealthily stole over the pine 

 needles." "I marked where he lit! He isn't flown!" In the 

 light of after vettrs' experience, 1 wonder how I ever saw 

 him, but see him T did. And noble he loooked standing 

 there on the limb, so still, SO erect, with his head turned to 

 one side, intently watching. How his raised black ruffs 

 glistened as the sun struck them, glancing through the leaves. 

 Old fellow. I never should have seen you had you been in 

 the shade, but I saw you, you didn't see me, and that was 

 your destruction! It wasn't sportsman-like, I know, to kill 

 "him there with no chance for his life, but we didn't think of 

 that in those days. With a shaking hand the old muzzle- 

 loader was raised, a straining eye looked along the rusty 

 barrel, a nerveless finger pressed the trigger, and be fell, 



Many a partridge have 1 stopped in his hurried flight, but 

 never since have 1 felt the thrill which shot through me as 1 

 held that handsome old cock lying warm and limp in my 

 hand: and as 1 trudued toward town that night wilh him, 

 With such exultant, spirits as one rarely knows. What a 

 pleasure it was to feel that game bag, heavier lhan usual, 

 thump against my side. And when I reached home and 

 showetl my prize" and they all crowded round the table 

 Where he lay and stroked and admired him, 1 thought the 

 cup of mv happiness was full. 



But let me not, in writing of my greater, forget my lesser 

 friends. At noon we always turned back to the spring, no 

 matter how far away, and there, with the murmur of the 

 brooks and Ibe soft sigh of the pines overhead, we ate our 

 lunch. And there, just as soon as we sat down, came the 

 chickadees. What happy, rollicking Utile fellows they 

 were! Heads up or heads "down, it mattered not to them; 

 they were about us everywhere with their merry chatter. 

 They say chickadees do nol sing, but I waul to hear no pret- 

 tier woodland music than their soft little calls to each other, 

 or their ringing pitas-bee. How curious tl.ey were. They 

 would light ""within a loot or two of us sometimes and cock 

 their little heads first to one side then the other, and watch 

 us with their little black eyes as if they would say: "Stingy 

 tilings! They won't give us any ol their dinner." But we 

 always did leave them some, though I fancy the bhiejays 

 got as much of it as they did. 



The bluejavs— how thick they were. Bare indeed was the 

 time when 'uric could enter the woods without hearing their 

 harsh Jcee-e, fae-b, Ive-e, or their mellow, bell-toned whistle. 

 When we found nothing else to shoot they were always at 

 hand. And many was the blucjav that fell to my old single 

 barrel. Thev never did us any good, of course, but we 

 always felt a" sort of spite against them. There v. a 

 low that had a while patch on his wing, and great was Ihe 

 rivalry between mv companion aud mvself as lo who should 

 get him. But neither of us ever did. for he iseemed to know 

 that he was in special demand, aud fought very shy of us. 

 Vet .we saw him often, and sometimes got along shot at 

 him, but we never hud the satisfaction of knowing what thai 

 white patch was. Probably he was partially an albino 



Sometimes with the chickadees came the nuthatches, bob- 

 bing up and down the trees wilh their curious cries, and 



ten, also, the creepers, uttering their line little .-..-■'■•. 



Pleasant indeed was it to sit leaning back on them 



n.ies. a ft en- we had eaten our lunch, and dream day-dreams 

 (how few have come true!) till the growing coolness roused 

 us, and we once more went down through the woods to 

 some favorite spot, there to sit in silence, watehiua' for the 

 squirrels. 



My companion find I each had our chosen places, which 

 the other never molested. How many afternoons have I sal 

 in the corner of that old stone wall, just where the bounda- 

 ries of three towns met. with my gun across my knees, 

 watching silent and intent. Just as it was growing dark 

 my companion aud 1 again would meet, and betake our- 

 selves to a clump of walnuts standing alone in the middle of 

 a pasture, and rare was the lime when we did not succeed in 

 gelling at leasl one squirrel there. 



Then, with the darkness gathering fast about us, while 

 the far-off lights of the distant town began to t\\ inkle, and 

 above "one- by one s * - blossomed the lovely stars, 

 the forget-me-nots of the angels," we silently turned our 

 steps homeward. Tired were we, but our hearts were full 

 of the happiness which one feels in boyhood alone. 



Ah, happy days, when will you 'return? Now, when 

 business cares and all the manifold duties of this hurrying, 

 bustling world crowd in, and we cannot again experience 

 the pleasures of those years, how good it is to live over 

 again in imagination those days of golden memotyl C. 



MAINE GAME. 



THIS year we entered the wilderness 1 

 and Canada bv the Canadian route. 

 (ion at Agnes, an active littli 

 the end of our railroad travel. 

 Joseph aud Moses Noil, brotlt 

 whom mora than a passing V 

 fnl. hard working, anxious t 

 aud good paddlers, their tirel 



86 bordering on Maine 

 ate. We left eivilizn 

 n Lake Megan tic, and 

 :e met our two guides, 



French Canadians, of 



Old be spoken. Failh- 



!, thorough woodsmen 



unusual 



lifficulties, places them in the front rank of that most faith- 

 ful andhonesl fellowship— the independent guides. 



By paddle and portage we traveled many miles over 

 placid lakes and rapid streai bn agh bogs and overmonn- 

 tains, by trail and bycompass. Gaining health and strength 

 with each inspiration of that glorious mountain air, killed 

 deer, trout .and ruffed grouse sufficient for our wants, (and 

 no more) aud returned refreshed, and more than Sfltisl - 

 with the capabilities of the. country. But to the shame of 

 the country be it said, that everywhere we went, the same 

 story is told of hundreds of deer slaughtered on the crust in 

 the late spring, butchered with the ax, simply for t heir hides, 

 their carcasses left to rot, where they fell; of trout taken out 

 of season on their spawning be, Is, by set Inn s and snares, 

 and of partridges shol on their nests, moose with their calves, 

 and does with fav OS by then side., shot down in the early 

 summer. The game wardens must be cognizant of all this, 

 but the work of destruction still goes bravely on. 



To our children, trout, moose, caribou and deer will he 

 only a tradition if this thing is allowed to go on. .Maine and 

 Canada have both stringent game laws: their enfi rfi niPIll 

 nil thai ' Di s : ary to save tiiis glorious breathing-ground to 

 iin 1. ivs i of nature and noble sport, ft, is nol ihe sportsman 

 that depletes (he game; no true man, dearly as he may love 

 sport, would kill "or destroy merely to waste, It is the g) 

 of the dollar that sends these crusl-hunlers and trout poach 

 era to their work of waste and butchery. Maine says lo the 

 sportsman \ isitor, deer, moose or caribou Ibou shall nol kill 

 till October 1; he, respecting the low. does nut kill or hunt, 

 but his ears are tilled with stories of slaughter, he is told of 

 men who brag of their scores of defenseless deei murdered 

 on the crust. ' Maine annually drives the law-abiding sports- 

 man and thousands of dollars' out of her borders by her. law 

 forbidding hunting till October t (before which time the 

 business and professional men have finished their summer 

 vacation) to have her game slaughtered out uf season by 

 worse than pot-hunters. /. <U, it does not even go to the pot, 

 the men are afraid to sell the meat— the paltry pittance for 

 the hides serves them. 



Why will not Maine see the wisdom of changing her open 

 season for large game to Sept. 1'.' The surrounding States 

 and the Dominion all allow hunting on or before that dale 

 And let her close her trout season Sept. La; the fish are full 

 of e-it'gs by that time, and are on the spawning beds 



For those who know and love the old Pine Tree State, 

 with her noble mountains, her trout-haunted lata : sUtfl 

 streams, and the pure, life-giving air of her grand old 

 forests, it is hard to be forced by a senseless law to seek 

 other fields for (heir brief summer ouling; while of thoac 

 that do go, il is virtually offering a reward lor dishonesty 

 and riei-et'tion. .-inil inaio- i a guide an informer and 

 takin"- hi- verv manhood from him. How do you suppose 



e. -sea- wardens have been informed of del 



paitie.-, i,i mi iuded camps? It is asking too much of average 

 humanity, for the guide is human, and. likes to lay up his 

 dollar fora rainy day. 



Heforin it, gentlemen of Maine. Give us a reasonable 

 law. and let us -see to if that the law is enforced and lived up 

 to, A >,A'ri\E ok M*link. 



The Maine Commissioners write to the Bangor WMtf Uml 

 fnirrkr: "In reply to the manv inquiries daily received for 

 our construction of Chapter LsVof the Laws of 1*83 r. hi 

 to the killing, etc.. of moose, earihou and deer, we have 

 consulted competent counsel, who, after careful e.-.a mi nation 

 have advised us in substance as follows— which opinion 

 seems to us to be sound law, and which will be ado] ted I ;, 

 us as the true construction of Chaptei 185, Laws of 1878: 



" 'See. 1. No person shall kill, destroy, orhavein possession, 

 from the first day of October to the firsl day of January, in 

 each year, more 'than one moose, two caribou or three deer, 

 under a penalty of one hundred dollars for every mouse, and 

 fortv dollars for every caribou or deer killed, destroyed or 

 in poss.-ssion in excess of the said number. Any per ' 

 havmg in possession more than the aforesaid number of 

 moose, caribou or dei r or the e n- , ;i , of. shall 



In- deemed to have killed or destroyed them in violation of 



In- I."l. 



"Between the first da V of January and the first day uf 

 October in each year, it is unlawful for any peJ On. 1 



kill or destroy anv moose, door or caribou. 



"Between the firsl day or October and the fir,- 1 

 uary in each year, anv person may kill, de-troy, <a- base in 



possession, not more II wo caribou nr-lui'tia 



deer. The statute does nol read : -No person shall kill 



.i, o destroy or have in p i c ion ai o i >rc 



.iihsuchs construction il wot I I 



