Jan-, IS, 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



487 



jo thai anybody could be f\iolir.|i enough to turn out on 



, : .:,■ bi when 



■ . i II ■ ■ r: I i imdei'*tand 



Tbe De'ilI\a.U business pn Li !■■ 



"Why. 'said she, "our of them, the preacher, is already 



her .mil iiir Doctoi and Brother Duffrey and Mud were 



tie*6i' known to lose the opportunity Qf getting a good meal." 



She whs right. They braved Hie storm, and Ln a short while 



WC bad "onCleus under the mahogany," aoddid ample honor 



to the culinary skill of the Madam. Shu was happy when 



she saw that we managed to worry down a full portion of the 



viands. The Doctor.' Bro. Duffrey and Mud gave ample 



IICCS "f their approval of the repast. Thev always do. 



WKI<Ii3. 

 [to i ivi.iiasi. K. C, Jan. F8B8 



A NEW YEAR'S SCREED. 



L> IT them away — the multitudinous breech-loaders and 

 the numberless rods. Let us fake in a retrospect. 



The season for fishing and hunting has (legally) elosed. I 

 have hunted none and fished hut little; but T have been iu 

 position to see and criticise the doings of all outers, anglers 

 ami hunters \\ ho infest the waters and mountains of the 

 tipper Susquehanna. I rise to remark— and I defy criticism 

 —that they are all alike, "gentlemen sportsmen" and native 

 • -hoodlums" — trout hogs and human deer wolVCS. 



T took in a week af the last end of the trout season, 

 catching only so many as could be used daily — sometimes 

 not so many— and I did not strike the man who had failed 

 to save the ultimate trout. As for myself and the Scribe, I 

 think we were exceptional. We caught what we wanted 

 From meal to meal, and sometimes -'went short" on I rout.. 

 What then? We did not suffer for food. We had the 

 grand old forest, a model camp, a bed of hemlock browse, 

 fresh strewn every night, the song id' the hermit thrush, the 

 cheery to-whoo of the horned owl, the weird cries of the 

 night birds, that neither Wilson nor Audubon ever knew or 

 understood: we had our midnight smoke of plug and kinni- 

 kinuiek; we read poetry and possessed our souls in peace. 



We saw that the trout, though doing their bestto keep 

 the supply up to the demand, had fafied Utterly. A reas- 

 onable draft by reasonable men, might have left them a 

 Chance. But the industrious trout hog had beared the market 

 He. the 'I'. II.. despised law and fair phi v. When the bright 

 spotted water kelpies would not take his' worms, grubs and 

 lure,-,, he resorted to lime and dynamite. And the gentleman 

 sportsman was not above buying the trout so slaughtered, 

 and taking them home. as. perhaps, his own catch. 



Later in the season he, the G. s , invaded the "Northern 

 Tier" of Pennsylvania rather numerously. He came from the 

 cities and large villages of New York and Pennsylvania, and 

 he came prepared for slaughter. He has not been known to 

 let a deer pass that he could kill b.v dint of ball or buckshot. 

 The camp might be flush of venison, more than could be 

 used; but all the same he turned out eagerly and early iu the 

 morning, and waged war against bucks, does, and fawns, 

 ■ ruthlessly and Indiscriminately, lo the last ofhiaouting. 



And you will notice thai in recounting the events of the 

 hunt afterward, it is the man who succeeded in getting the 

 greatest number of shots and doing the most murder," who 

 is the king pin of the party and most jubilant of all. while 

 I he luckless wight who has been in camp for a week or more 

 without getting a shot, goes back <o his eitv muttons feeling 

 desolate and dispersed, although he mav have been fed on 

 , Unison to repletion, and hare had the half of a deer to lake 

 home. Wily, what did he come hundreds of miles for, at 

 much expense and trouble, if not to hunt? Ami. if he is to 

 get no shot, why bring a gun into the woods at all? 



That is how he puts it — with some show of logic, too. 



If mav Ije answered that. 80 long as a fair supply of game 

 is secured, it is of no consequence who makes the shots, 

 though it behooves every man of the party to be prepared* 



As for me. I prefer that the deer go to some other man's 

 watehway. I am not hankering tu dress a. deer on a cold 

 day, and then pack the saddle two or three miles to camp, 

 with the addition of a couple of unruly hounds to tow 

 through shin-hopples and laurebhrakc. 1 have been there too 

 often. 



And the best hunter does not get, nor want, the shots. He 

 it is, who takes the Gentlemen Sportsmen out in the early 

 morning, placing them like so many BtOUghtOU bottles on 

 the runnings they would never find for themselves, and then 

 make a long wearisome detour with, the dogs to drive the 

 deer. It does not taken skillful woodsman to sit on alog 

 and wait, orbit a deer with buekshol at t\\ only rive yards." 



Anrl the G. S.. like the native market hunter, is never 

 eontenl with less than the ultimate, deer. 



I have read carefully all that the Fouest and STREAM 

 has had to say on the destruction of game; I have made my 

 own observations. Taking a calm retrospect of the past 

 season, with the present outlo ik, 1 express my conviction 

 that the game "must go," 



The English sparrow has come lo stay; also the Heathen 

 Chinee. But the game must go. Briefly, I will give a Jew 

 reasons. In the far- "West there arc thousands of "skin- 



' » I'" will ruthlessly shoot down our grandest 



game (buffalo and elk) foi the trifle Ihaf the skins will bring 

 in market, leaving the carcasses to rot on the ground. These 

 men arc the most daring plainsmen iu existence. Personally 

 fearless, crack shots, awl reckless of life, they are haul i'o 

 suppress. [ never knew one who didn't deserve a nailer— 

 but 1 don't know how to apply It. As lo laws and game 

 wardens, they are of no account. One of these Eocky 

 Mouufain lambs said to me, less than a year ago: "Yes; 

 scud US out a few game wardens. We'll tie 'em up in camp 

 and make em useful." I think they might do it. 



Coming nearer home, what, of our deer and, smaller game! 

 1 can say with truth that I know of no party who haslet up 

 or spared so long as a deer could be killed. 'As a fail- sample 

 I will give tin,' result of one hunt made by Cap!. A. E. Niles. 

 of the Regulars 'on the retired list), and 'three others, They 

 hunted on the branches of Young Woman's Creek, about 

 the dividing line, of Poller and Clinton counties, and killed 

 twenty-two (leer and three bears. They used the. meat of 

 two deer, biought home half a deer each, aud sold the rest 

 in Sew York. The Captain took iu a Parker shotgun and 

 a. Remington rifle; "Hank Schaft" a. three-barreled" Maker; 

 the others, double barrels, rllie aud shot. Few deer escaped 

 them. The Captain and 1 are hunting chums of thirty 

 years' standing. 1 felt free lo interview him regarding the 

 hunt, and the talk was something like this: 



Myself— 'I hear you have bad big luck, and Em sorry 

 lo heal ,i.ii haya been shooting for market. Am told Jrou 

 n deer to New York. '■ 



Captain— "Well, what of it? Would you want us to 

 have the venison in the woods to rot ?" 



M.— "Xn. Bui you had no right nor reason to kill it. 

 When you had aliy'ou could use with a reasonable amount 

 lo bring home. 'sHtldn't yotl let up?" 



C — ''See here, y,,u cynical old humbug, we go to the 

 wootls lo hunt The nights are fearfully long, the days 

 slioi-i. Are we to slouch around camp all dav doing noth- 

 ing?" 



M — "\\ ell. it's a mighty poor woodsman who cannot 

 start out on a bright autumn morning, take in a quiet day's 

 tramp, prospect for runways, the feeding ground:- ol Beer, 

 go to the highest peaks, and look over a' mountain pano- 

 rama thai no pen can describe, and come into camp at night 

 just lired enough to induce healthy appetite and Sound 

 sleep." 



C. — "Oh, you are a woods crunk, You let a doe- pass 

 you without a shot when the eamp is starving for venison. 

 if all men were like you it might keep the deer. But one 

 man can do nothing. J1 



That is Hie argument: If 1 don't do it gome one will 

 -the pickpocket's logic. Go on, my good fellows, exter- 

 minate the game. You are safe to do it. And a fallow 

 deer will be a rare Bight for your grandchildren. 



The game is being destroyed at a. fearful rate all over the 

 bind. 1 quote a few brief notes from PoRBBT \xt> Srr.EA.u: 

 From Maine, Bangor region, total four hundred arid eigbt 

 Carcasses of deer. ' One hundred and fifty on the Beavei 

 River, North Woods, New York. Deet wolf in the Ottawa 

 region kills seventy four deer in ten da vs. The most de 

 stru live slaughter' I e\ er read of. All for market. The 

 G. Sportsmen, "Ed. Gillmnn * * and friends * * ha ve 1 teen settd- 

 ing down from ten lo sixteen deer per dav." Again, "E. 1! 

 Gillmau and two friends * * killed nearly fifty deer. etc. " 

 How about game protection and gentlemen sportsmen? 



1 look over the pages of tie- sporting papers and I count 

 up nineteen advertisements of parties, who with costly 

 "plants" are making first-class guns — breech-loaders, of 

 course. What are ail these guns Fort Who is to use them? 

 In addition to these, are at least four leading booses in 

 England which art sending the finest ij-uns to our shores 

 for sale. The cheap Belgian guns come over iu shiploads, 

 and whatever you may say, they shoot about as well as a 

 hitch priced Parker or Greener. Each and all tire too 

 destructive. 



Then we have the dogs ! Ah. yes! Here is u strong point 

 for. the destruction of game, V man cannot follow a deer 

 or bird by his nose. But a dog can. And thence we have 

 "field trials." and dogs that are reported as selling at the 

 price of a deceut sized farm. If is a most laughable hum- 

 bug. It will do to nlace with the price of nightingales' 

 tongues in ancient Borne, or the modern prices of Asiatic 

 fowls at $800 the trio, said fowls not being as worthy as the 

 old barnyard dorainiek. 



I uwnto-dav the best harrier in Northern Pennsylvania. 

 1 should think him well sold at $15. I paid $6 for him. 

 My friend ('apt. Niles had the largest, the most StylisL and 

 most reliable pointer I ever saw — on ruffed grouse and 

 woodcock. He offered him lo me hsagift. I wouldn't 

 have him; I had as lief take charge of a, horse. Why should 

 wo imagine a vain thing? Dogs and eats arc I he cheapest 

 arid most ; easily propagated of all domestic animal-. The 

 cat can assist, in ilceimatmg rats, the dog in destroying 

 game. Just why the dog should attain a value of $1,500, 

 while the eat is itot worth fifteen cents, is one of the things 

 I can't find out. There never was a dog on four legs that 

 was worth $100. As to the highfalutin nonseu-.e of "pedi- 

 gree" on pointer or setter, put that with the Dutch mania 

 on tulips, when a single bulb sold- lor $5.0110 out onion 

 being just as valuable, intrinsically). 



[have seen scores of these high-bred dogs and have not 

 been favorably impressed by them. They seemed to me 

 rather too royal— subject to king's evil, which we rough 

 woodsmen call, in a horse or dog, poll evil, There was 

 mostly something the matter with them, and their owners 

 were constantly consulting books and questioning -porting 

 papers ancnl dog ailments. Some id' them were wonderfully 

 trained to show off in the field, but they seemed too well 

 broken— broken in spirit so to speak, and' lacking the vim 

 and elan of a hunting dog. going through their performance 

 rather like a trained poodle/ 



Thev did not gain by comparison, in Mil- field, with our 

 lively little liver and while English setters, or the taller 

 Irish red. (1 don't like the latter: too rangey; too much 

 "gil up aud git,") For the eonsiderat ion aud disapproval of 



modern 'handlers" I will Mimmari/.e our mode of training 

 at that time (about '15-16). We used just three svllables or 

 sounds. A sharp, rough v-ra-k brought the dog to heel: a 

 sibilant sound between a 'his.- and a whistle started him out 

 to range, and the word "go" meant retrieve. Of course he 

 was taught to stand Staunchly and not to chase. If a pup 



did not stand on birds instinctively at three months of age 



we drowned him as worthless. If took but a few lessons— 

 (luring leisure hours — to make a good business dog. 



There was. at the time of wliieh'I speak, and in Lockpurt, 

 N. Y., a breed of small, campaci, tough black pointers. 

 They were the best dogs of the pointer kind I have ever seen. 

 and I have Been them nowhere- else, They needed very 

 little training and less breaking. Thev Were natural point 

 ers. I cannot say if thev are extant now. But. if thev are, 

 I will back I hem against any of the vaunted strains that 

 figure a1 bench shows ami field trials. I never knew one of 

 these dogs to sell for more I him $15j otlcner for $5. But 

 it is well for dog sharps and (rain, is that Ihcre are fortunate 

 fools who have more money than brains, and who can be 

 iuveigled into the hundreds on the price of a dog. Bull 

 only started in to say that, in the extermination of game, 

 the faithful dog is a leading element. I know whereof I 

 speak; I see that the bottom is bound to drop out of this 

 boom on bench shows ami field trials. There is no call for 

 this business. I know that these costly investments in "gun 



works" are certain to end in financial disaster; and l 'am 



glad of it. There are guns enough today, in first aud 

 second hands, to finish up the game in Europe and America, 

 from snipe to buffalo, if another gun were not made in 

 fifty years 



As for the muzzle-loader, shot or ride, that is u thing of 

 the past. Why! Don't you know, my fellow woodsmen. 

 that, if each and all of us were restricted to the use of a 

 Single-bartelBd muzzle-loader we should still he able to kill 

 quite as much game as we have a decent right to? Is it 

 needful, right or expedient, llial wc bring the tuost destruo 

 rive Implements of modern invention lo bear on the fast dis- 

 appearing game of the laud? Are we wcir-wolvi 



1 can answer lor one old woods loafer, v. ho will never 

 again shoot the mother doe or her bright-eyed fawn, or raise 

 any gun agaius* even the. buck, save the old. single barreled, 

 hair-triggered muzzle-loader that has been his lavorite for 

 thirty-six years. If a man has one fair shot at a deer and 



misses, it is a point, of honor to let Hie deer go. .1 am afraid 

 I stand aloue, hut I hope not, 1 like to believe that there 

 are men who can lake their vacations like humane gentle- 

 men. 



I occasionally strike a partner who, when camped at nigh! 

 amid tie grainiest forest Mirroundiugs, does not produce a 

 p . i eiods and propose a game of euchre by fire- 



light. I had a partner last summer who could read— by 

 memory — "Tom O'Shanier," "Address to tin.' Deil," and a 

 dozen other of Blum's poems: with the "Eltrick Sheperd's" 

 "Kilmcny," e.nd any amount of Milton, Hymn and Tenny- 

 son. And lie was a quiet man; not a pedant. Such a man 

 is beyond price in the woods. I hope lo have him for a 

 partner on a rather extended cruise in the Adirondack's next 

 summer. For it is mil true, as has been alleged, that 1 

 always choose to go alone in the woods, and am by nature a 

 hermit. 



Only— the average man that you strike in the woods is 

 such villainous company. 



I could give my uotio'u of an oti'e-live game law. But. 

 ■■■"' h-ir>: As John lia\ Bays, ''lend this as I did i»-gin." 

 The game must go. * Neswiitk. 



JJUSttjUW 1. 1SS.-I. 



EXPERIENCE WITH THE GROUSE. 



BUS] N ESS engagements have had urgent claims on mv 

 time during tiie" past two months, and have prevented 

 me from going out into the field with gun and clog until the 

 Christmas holidays came, which gave'me a few ctiivs of lib- 

 erty, anl which l improved by going to Northern 'Vermont 

 to see I lie "old gent,"-' aud get some rull'ed grouse shooting. 

 I was warmly received by the "old gent," who carries his 

 seventy-One years and one hundred and ninety -seven pounds 

 weight well; hut was told that 1 had come loo late for sport, 

 as he had no hound to run foxes or rabbits, and as there was 

 Ibis season no mast, gray squirrels were scarce: and he con- 

 tinued, "Since you got' the boys to begin shooting al part- 

 ridges on the Wing, they have driven them awayfrom here." 



"Do you think that shooting at partridges while on the 

 wing frightens them away? " I inquired. 



"Yes." he answered. '''You let a parcel of boys go into a 

 piece of woods, and when they Hush a bird hang away al it. 

 then follow it up, flush and 'whang' away at: it again, and 

 SOon the birds Will leave for more quiet quarters. Up to 

 two year- ago We had plenty oi partridges in any of the 

 woods about here, and now you mav trav 

 see more than one or two bird: 



were seared Out of their wits 

 now been thoroughly warmed 

 only shoot wild birds, you can't 

 than one-half or so of the partridge 



ieh 11 

 s the 



II dav and not 

 1 though thev 

 >ld gent." had 

 ' continued: "If you 

 hole season kill more 

 that are in a. piece of 



woods. The first day you may make a good bag: then they 



get shy and wild as 'crows, and it's Work to get a shot at 



them after the dog has put them up. But if you go out 



th your setters that understand their business," befejs* the 



rds'have once been Hushed they will lie to your dogs, and 



right up to them, and if you -are a good shot it 



lie 



"To 



ien they get up. 

 I Newton Woods? well. 



:! oven fall 

 to get fifteen or twenty birds there, until last fall, lienry 



(a crack grou.se shot ) ea me here and went there one 



day with his setter and killed fou rteeu birds, and then the 

 boys pitched iu there and in a week there v.asn 1 a bird left 

 in "the woods, and there hasn't been oue seen (here this 

 season. Henry came here in October and we drove away 

 over to the Httrllmrt. Wootls. where there had heenno shoot- 

 ing done, and 1 went in on the north side of the road and 

 Henry nn the south side, and my Rover put up seventeen 

 birds and treed five, which I shot. Henry flushed fourteen 

 and he killed nine, and claims that he 'hard-hit the other 

 five. About a week after that I weul over there again, and 

 on the north side of the road I flu-bed eleven birds, but as 

 than when I was there before, I onlv gol 



I (la 



south side of thr- 

 one bird, which 

 . Since the hoys 

 , at every small 

 id thing 'for the 

 !; but it's a bad 



two. I went all Hire 



road, where Henrv had been, and onlv 



flew as though the Old Mick waAlte'r 



began wing shooting Ihev arc blazing: 



bird thai they see, which makes it a 



storekeepers wdio have ammunition U 



thing for us old fellows who like to have game near home. 



lb ie I interrupted him with the remark that I had often 

 seen him shoot snipe and woodcock on the wing, and had 

 also known him to bowl over with a rifle bullet, many a fox 

 aud rabbit that were going al full speed before the bounds. 



"Of course, of Course you have." he replied. "Different 

 kinds ol game require to be hunted in a different manner. 

 It's the only way that you can hunt woodcock or snipe 

 here, and it requires a quick eye and steady nerves to stop a 

 running fox or rabbit with a single bullet, but I don't call 

 it anything for a man lo do who spends weeks 'whanging' 

 at glass balls and potatoes to go out and poke a big bird like 

 a partridge up from under a dog's nose, then hit it with a 

 charge of fine shot. The only sport I can see in it is in 

 watching ihojdog working and seeing the skill that he uses to 

 draw up io Ins game. It's more sport to me to creep up 

 ay old bird that has -treed' than to 



opped to go dOWTJ cellar and draw a mug 



t the subject when he returned. " 



.) perform one feat with 



within r 



inge 



of a 



V 



shoot hit 



■ ti 



■rwai 



d. 



The ' ■ 



ild v 



•nt." 



sf( 



of cider. 



and 



did n 



It 



1 hav< 



kno 



vii th 





ats that 



t was too 

 The ne 



irk to 



ed,1h: 



•reek 



1 his £ 



tig musk- 

 ; when 



durir 

 The 

 had i 



ng I started for a large body of woods 

 I formerly there were dozens of grouse, and onlv saw 

 g the entire day a single bird, and that flushed' wild, 

 neu day I went iu another direction aud al night 

 i my pockets two gray squirrels, which were the only 

 that 1 saw. The third day I tried the bottoms along 

 rne creek, where I picked up a couple of cock grouse, 



both old binl.,. but of unusual color: of oue the general 

 ground color wa.s a bright silvery gray, and the other a 

 dark reddish brown. These two birds, with a plump rac- 

 coon that my Norfolk spaniel found and drew out of a 

 hollow stump, made up my entire bag for this day's -port. 



This Norfolk spaniel is a soil of Jack-al-nll-traths, and 

 toy everyday companion. When out with a setter or after 

 ducks I use him for a retriever, and when used alone after 

 woodcock or snipe 1 can make him range slow or ast and 

 close, and in eases of emergency can use him to run any 

 foilr-footed game from a, rabbit to a moose, lie is as light, 

 active and gamy as a terri, r. with almost humanlike, affec 

 tioti and intelligence. These are the general characteristics 

 : i' ..J of ,-p miels, which makes them highly prized 

 by those who know and possess them. 



To day myself and son. a, "chip from the ifldblock, 'aged 



