FOREST AND STREAM 
835 
Brownsburgh and New Hope, Bucks County, the shoot* 
ing there is excellent, partridges and woodcock being in 
numbers sufficient to repay an expedition to that part of 
the State. 
Virginia — Petersburg, Nov. 10 th. —Game of all kinds 
is in great abundance hereabouts. Quail especially plenti¬ 
ful, but weather too warm and dry to hunt with any 
comfort to man or beast. No rain for six weeks or more. 
Can walk dryshod across the James River at Richmond 
on the rocks at the bottom, The "Weather Bureau evi¬ 
dently needs “ readjustment.'’ New Jersey. 
Petersburg, Nov. loth. —Deer, turkey, partridge and 
hare in great abundance hereabouts, but the heat has 
' been so intense and the drought so excessive, that hunt¬ 
ing has been attended with great discomfort to man and 
beast. The first rain, however, will make glorious sport, 
and then you will hear again from New Jersey. 
—Those travellers to the South who appreciate the im¬ 
portance of Weldon, North Carolina, as a way station, so 
far as it involves their personal comfort, will be pleased 
to learn that Col, J. R. Davis, formerly of the Scriven 
House in Savannah, and more recently of the Purcell 
House in Wilmington and at Norfolk, Va.. has become 
its proprietor. See his advertisement elsewhere. Besides 
being a dining station at a great railroad centre, it is in 
the midst of a great game country. There are deer and 
turkeys within easy distance, as well as some of the best 
quail shooting in the Old North State. Geese, upland 
plover, and willett also abound. Those of our subscribers 
who have been asking us where to go for game, will 
please make a note of this. 
Millbury, Nov. 3d.—Mr. John M. White shot alarge fox 
this morning on Brigham Hill, Grafton, that weighed 
ten pounds, and is one of the largest seen in this vicinity 
in a long time, 
Ohio— Cincinnati, Nov. 12f7 1 . —I have never seen game 
so scarce in Boone and Kenton counties as it is this sea¬ 
son, ClkT. 
Indiana — Indianapolis, Nov. 10 th. —Since my last I 
have been after quail, but find that the dry weather has 
driven them to the fields near the water courses. Many 
persons even believe that some have migrated, as they 
are not now as numerous as they were earlier in the 
season. Ingham. 
Illinois. — Rockford, Nov. 10 th. —The ardent sports¬ 
men of this city have been disappointed in wild-fowl 
Bhooting this fall. Several parties have camped out from 
a week to a month at our best known resorts, but have 
returned disgusted. The reason assigned is on account 
of the long continued drought. Some of the resorts about 
Grass Lake and Sugar River where ducks are generally 
found in great plenty at this season of the year, are as 
barren of birds as the desert of Sahara. 
Dr. Mills, of Freeport, in company with Mr. Bid wall of 
the same city, returned from Koshkonong Lake after an 
absence of six days, having bagged during their stay about 
1-10 ducks. Many of our hunters think; they need not 
hope for sport this fall, while others say the flight has 
scarcely began, and that later when the ponds and lakes 
farther North are frozen we shall see ducks “ till we can’t 
rest.” Nim Rod. 
Iowa—Grouse Shooting.— Creston, Nov. 15th. — I find 
the corn-fields and prairies full of grouse. They are now 
in flocks, sometimes reaching four hundred birds, and do 
not lie well to the dog. Have seen over one hundred this 
forenoon, and killed but a few. They have been but little 
hunted the past summer, and next season must produce 
good shooting. Most of the prairie is yet in a state of 
nature, and southwestern Iowa will have plenty of good 
shooting for many years. The country is very swelling, 
and resembles a broken sea. H. W. Merrill. 
Oregon — Portland, Nov. Sd.—Weleft Portland at three 
o’clock a. m, on the steamer Traveller, Capt. Love. I 
was.let off at Greene’s Landing, and at six o’clock Mr. 
W. started out in the forest with the hounds, and my 
friend and self proceeded to the slough, and after taking 
stands, waited patiently, in vain, from seven A. M. to 
three p. m., and then gave up in disgust. I was ready to 
start home with two ducks as the reward of a patient 
day’s waiting. The remainder of the party had very 
good luck, Bob B. heading the list with thirty-six ducks, 
mostly mallard and widgeon. Multnomah. 
Cincinnati, Nov. 8tli. —But two of the members of the 
Cincinnati Shooting and Fishing Club put in an appear¬ 
ance to decide the third competition for the club prizes 
—Bates .and Baum’s ; rubber bound trap, with screen ; rise, 
18 yards :— 
W. Caldwell.1 011 11110010101111110 1101111 
11111111111 1-33 
j.R.W hetstone. lllOOlllllOlOllollllOlllll 
1010000110111 1-28 
—The Pooler & Jones patent brass cartridge holders and 
belts are simple, and for the purpose very satisfactory. 
The cartridge belt is as necessary a part of an outfit as 
the gun itself. 
A Sure Method. —The defeat of a great many athletes 
has been traced to the difficulty of toning the muscular 
and nervous systems to the requisite power of resistance. 
Reputable physicians say that Weston-Rowellene will do 
it. No. 381 Sixth avenue, New York.— Adv. 
—Use Walter Baker & Co.’s Chocolate if you desire the 
best in the market. The verdict of experts, both in Eu¬ 
rope and America, has for many years testified to its great 
excellence.— [Adv. 
The Next President.— The politicians are anxious on 
this subject, but a much more important thing for all 
who have poor appetite, or skin diseases, or an enfeebled 
constitution generally, is to know that Warner’s Safe Bit¬ 
ters will cure them. $1,000 will be paid to any one who 
will prove that there is a better medicine of its kind.— 
[Adv. ___ 
—Very few men live to write their own obituary. 
S n 4 and gmpping. 
THE MOOSE ("CERVUS ALOES.”) 
the hunters’ way of following up “signs.” 
T HE young of the moose generally follows its mother 
one year, and sometimes longer; so the young are 
called calves when one year old, or more, if following the 
dam, 
A good moose hunter can tell, while following up the 
signs of moose, how many and nearly of what age, sex, 
etc., he has ahead of him. 
Tbe young, or calves, by their sucking teeth-marks on 
the bark of trees, always crosswise of the tree. The year 
old has two wide teeth in front, having lost two sucking 
teeth, and so on from year to year until five years old 
their front teeth mark their age. The bulls have wider 
teeth than the cows, and peel the bark or gnaw it higher 
up the tree, being longer-limbed. 
The color of the animal is discovered by the hair left on 
small knobs while passing between the trees. 
The above logic applies to summer and fall, or while 
the ground is yet bare ; but when the snow covers the 
ground, and we are following moose by their foot-marks, 
or tracks, there are other ways of telling age, sex, the 
number of the herd, etc, 
But, first of all, let me here say it is no boy’s play to 
strike off into the woods and find moose, even when they 
are plentiful; for it would be luck and chance to strike 
their tracks in winter, and useless to hunt them in sum¬ 
mer, as they would smell you further than you could hear 
them, and m our thick woods in Maine you could not see 
as far as you could shoot. 
They usually yard on the mountains, commencing at 
the first heavy snows, and working up as the winter 
advances and 'the snows deepen ; and when the snows 
are very deep they beat back and forth in the same track, 
until they consume all the eatible material within their 
reach—not attempting a new road until forced to it by 
hunger ; and then the large moose breaks ahead and the 
younger moose follows after. 
When first starting out after moose the hunter keeps 
his eye peeled for signs—first, on the low lands for bud¬ 
dings and breakings, These are considered early sum¬ 
mer signs, and are made by the tender buds of maples, 
willows and many other shrubs, and the way the moose is 
travelling is told by the manner the end of the bush is 
bitten off—thus, having no upper front teeth he has to 
break the twig over his under teeth, and so the bark is 
stripped up a little on the side toward him, which indi¬ 
cates the way he is travelling ; and as the hunter becomes 
accustomed to seeing quick, he can usually follow signs 
of this sort through the woods quite fast. 
Sometimes there is a lapse in the signs, and for half a 
mile or more no signs are made. Then the experienced 
hunter follows on in the same direction the signs were 
heading when last seen—generally toward some moun¬ 
tain or high land in the distance; and presently, when 
the signs are again discovered, they appear fresher, and 
may by-and-bye be told near the time when made. Oc¬ 
casionally a tree will be peeled, and in the summer 
months the hark will strip up very high, but in the fall 
months veryBhort, and later, at first snows, it has to be 
gnawed off. Then by the freshness or oldness of its ap¬ 
pearance the time it was done is judged. 
The bulls often rub their horns against small ever¬ 
greens, and trim off all their boughs. 
A moose yard is a grand sight—trees peeled of then- 
bark to the height of six to ten feet, looking in the bright 
sun for all the world like a clean room furnished with 
newly wood-varnished furniture—as far as the eye can 
reach, even, perhaps, half the side or top of a mountain, 
with roads or pathways in every direction ; and when 
the signs are new and fresh the beds of the moose may 
be seen in the snow. 
It is then easy to count your moose, for they are sure 
to make two beds during the night for each moose. I 
recollect one old Andover hunter, when he came upon 
the beds in the snow, put his hand into one, and said : 
“ The moose has just gone, for the snow is warm where 
he lay 1” j, Q, R, 
Bethel, Me., October, 1879. 
Trapping a Bear. —An old hunter correspondent of 
ours, who lives in New Brunswick, Canada, sends ua the 
following rough notes :— 
On the 34th of July last I left Fredericton, N. B., with 
the intention, if possible at that time, of securing some 
live beaver of tbe spring growth. I reached Slate Island 
on the Southwest Miramichi on the evening of the 35th. 
When I was there some ten days previously to this, I had 
set a steel trap at an old camp about one and a quarter 
miles east of the Miramichi, where I had noticed traces 
of bears. Going back, therefore, to where I had set this 
trap, I found it gone. I had a junk of wood attached to 
it which weighed about forty pounds; the trap itself 
weighed twenty-six pounds. 
I noticed the weeds and grass along the old lumber 
road broken down, evidently by the clog and tx-ap. I fol¬ 
lowed these marks for about 100 yards, when I found that 
Bruin had left the road. His route was easily traceable 
by holes in the ground, broken bushes, moss torn off the 
logs, etc. I found that he had several times got the clog 
fast between two trees, but cleared himself after great 
exertions by turning it around till he got it out. 
After following his track, in all its windings, a dis¬ 
tance of not more than half a mile, from where the trail 
had been set, I came to a side hill, pretty steep, covered 
by hard wood, where was a pile of blown-down trees. 
Among these I caught a glimpse of Brum’s black coat, 
and, approaching nearer, saw a very large bear, with my 
trap fast to his nose; one tooth of it had passed directly 
through his nostrils. As soon as he saw me he made vio¬ 
lent efforts to get the trap and clog free from the trees 
among which they were entangled. While attempting 
this he lifted the trap and clog to clear them from the 
trees. Seeing this, and fearing lest he should tear the 
trap from his nose and make off, I put a ball into him 
almost immediately. This animal would weigh about 350 
pounds, was very poor, and had been in the trap, from 
appearances, about four days, H, B, 
More Trapping Lore.— Weld, Me., Nov. 8th.—Editor 
Forest and Stream ,:—A recent issue of your paper gives 
some curious incidents of trapping. I offer the follow¬ 
ing A trapper in a logging camp, York Col, N. B., 
caught two bears at tbe same time in one trap, A friend 
of mine caught two foxes in like manner, In both in¬ 
stances, although fast in, yet they had a falling out, and 
the weaker of its kind fell a victim to the rage of its 
mate in misery. Another trapper known to the writer 
left a bear trap setting through the winter, and on visit¬ 
ing it to reset and bait up in the spring, found a fine bear 
recently caught, the trap remaining open for business all 
winter. 
Mention is made, too, of skunks getting into fox traps. 
It is the only drawback to the pleasure of trapping sly 
Reynard, but it can’t be helped. Skunk are not in the 
least wary, and being grass feeders they go at once into 
a trap as soon as set, not caring in the least for any 
human scent there may be around. They begin feeding 
early in the evening, while the fox seldom takes bait till 
the latter part of the night—generally about daylight. Of 
course, any and all other birds and animals are liable to 
put their foot in it, though not meant for them. 
Corp’l Lot Warfield. 
hchtinq mid Routing. 
HIGH WATER FOR THE WEEK. 
Date. 
Boston. 
New York. 
Charleston. 
h. 
m 
b. 
m 
h* 
m. 
Nov, 20. . 
5 
15 
8 
1 
1 
14 
Nov. 21 . 
0 
9 
3 
55 
2 
8 
Nov. 23. 
f 
1 
3 
47 
3 
0 
Nov. 23. ..... 
7 
51 
4 
37 
3 
50 
Nov. 21. 
8 
38 
5 
gi 
4 
37 
Nov. 25. 
0 
26 
8 
13 
5 
25 
Nov. 20. 
10 
16 
7 
2 
6 
15 
New Yachts. —Piepgras is at work on an ocean steam 
yacht for a Newark gentleman. Smith, of Islip, has 
under way a sloop for Philadelphia parties, and expects 
soon to lay down a schooner. Mr. A. Carey Smith is 
getting out the lines of a sloop, and Kirby is busy on a 
model of a fifty-foot schooner. Els worth is also at work 
on a model for a forty-five foot sloop for Dr. Voudy, and 
Thomas Clapham has laid the keel of a fifty-four foot 
schooner-rigged sharpie, with more work in prospect. 
Experiences in a Sloop. —A gentleman writes from 
Buffalo :— 
I have recently returned from another cruise in a 
thirty-foot New York model sloop, and I sold her im¬ 
mediately upon my return with the intention of build¬ 
ing or buying a deeper boat. 
And this is what the author says in a charming little 
book entitled “A Yachtsman’s Holidays,” which bears 
upon the same subject, and which, coming from a prac¬ 
tical ship-builder and engineer of high repute, ought to 
do much to disabuse the minds of many in regard to the 
supposed qualities of the modern cutter:— 
The first part of our part i carre was in a little hooker 
of only five tons, one of the earliest to appear of the 
“narrow, deep type” now so much in vogue, and there¬ 
fore considered by some knowing hands to he probably 
unsafe and certainly uncomfortable. In truth she was 
neither, being as reliable a little vessel as ever floated— 
buoyant as a cork and stiff as a church. Indeed, the very 
divergencies from accepted models which she exhibited 
have since been exaggerated to such a degree that our old 
lima is now actually thought rather a round, beamy craft 
than otherwise, and her present owner has serious 
thoughts of lengthening her, to make her accord with the 
notions of the day. I have been often much amused by 
discussions, verbal and printed, on the question of the 
proportions of yachts, and by the extraordinary amount 
of prejudice that seems still to exist in some minds 
against vessels of considerable relative length and depth, 
It might have been expected that the issue of an authori¬ 
tative work like that of Dr. Dixon Kemp on “ Yacht De¬ 
signing,” could have acted like an extinguisher on the 
worshippers of broad beams, but in spite of all attempts 
to diffuse sound principles, one meets now and then with 
the most vigorous brandishing of the old fetish. 
The argument is generally conducted in a manner 
which implies that the builder or advocate of broad ves¬ 
sels is a meritorious kind of person, with good moral prin¬ 
ciples, a supporter of constituted authority and the 
Churoli Establishment, while the fellow who would say 
a word for narrow boats may justly be suspected of in¬ 
fidel proclivities, and is probably only restrained by the 
strong arm of the law from larceny and homicide. Nice 
distinctions are drawn between what is called “natural 
stability” and “ artificial ” ditto, which is obtained in a 
mean, sneaking sort of way by lead keels, metal floors 
and such iniquitous devices. Is it the case that the yachts 
of the period—even racing yachts of the advanced types 
—are inferior to their predecessors in seaworthiness or 
comfort, to say nothing of speed ? I think not ; in fact 
very much the reverse appears to be the case. At any 
rate, coasting trips by the smaller classes are now more 
frequent and more extended than ever, and now-a-days 
ten and fifteen-ton yachts frisk around the Land’s End 
every season, in search of worthy antagonists, carrying 
their crews safely and speedily, with no more discomfort 
than is inseparaDle from their small dimensions. May 
the yachtsman take thought and amend, if he be still 
seeking after false gods like “ natural stability.” 
Though the author quoted above had reference more 
especially to English yachts, his language is even more 
applicable to the condition of affairs iu America, wiiere 
but few scientific men have yet taken hold of yacht de¬ 
signing, and where we are floundering in a sort of 
prinueval ignorance of the principles of naval architec¬ 
ture, and where a cute eye and smart guessing have taken 
the place of an exact science. Likewise does the author’s 
sly hit at the worshippers of beam and “ moral sta- 
