December 32, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



409 



arranged that. Mr. H. E. Thompson, rjno-o'f the best shots, 

 should invite our friend to a quiet afternoon on the pass. 

 Now '''Bob'' shoots a light '2-Lruugc with 4 dra. oi powder 

 and 1 oz. of shot. Tli" i mruliei 8 with 7 tirs. fiii- 



more enjoyable. The reader tan now see tow easy it was to put 

 the scheme in execution. T. Btationed himself quite close to the 

 Rev. "B-.h," and as duck after duck appeared would manage 

 to shoot almost, if not i rei tsame time, and would 



ravely inform the astonfs minie ihathe, "Bob," 



ba< Killed tfla bird, which almost invariably fell upon the 

 discharge, i PUld 01 course, once in a while, shoot a 

 bird in an opposite direction, or make a double, in which 



:■ would claim one of the birds. The sport went- on, 

 until the flight ceased, when a count was had. Rev. Mat- 

 thews' pile counted thirty-nine, Thonypaon's eleven. A more 

 astonished and delighted clergyman never existed. The 

 secret would have been well kept but that, night, in argu- 

 ing that the capacity to hit a bird on the wing was intuitive 

 and not ac mired, our friend cited his large bag of that day, 

 and admitted that whenever he fired he closed' his eyes, say- 

 ing, however, that, " before closing them, he carefully de- 

 termined the exact locality of the bird." Respect for the 

 cloth saved him from the wine supper penalty but not from 

 the laughter which followed the discovery. lie now de- 

 votes himself to a pet deer, kept at the lodge, to whom he 

 has taught many tricks, their joint gambols being a source of 

 much amusement to the members. Mam North. 



THE EARL OF B0HBA7EN JN NOVA SCOTIA. 



Halifax, N. S., Dec. S, 1881. 

 Editor Foregt and Stream : 



I see in the Halifax Morning Craniate of this date an 

 extract containing a letter headed, "Lord Dunraveu 

 and Nova Scotia Game Laws," and signed, "A Member of 

 the Nova Scotia Game Protective Society," together with 

 some editorial remarks thereon. I should have preferred to 

 leave such a letter unnoticed, but, as it may mislead some of 

 my brother sportsmen in the States, I think it better to make 

 one or two remarks concerning it. 



T ' air correspondent asserts that I am perfectly well-posted 

 in the Nova Scotian Game Laws, and on a former occasion 

 had to pay a fine for their breach. The s,,juili/r that because 

 a man is fined for the breach of a law, he must, therefore, be 

 well acquainted with it, ia somewhat peculiar. The letter 

 says : " Our system of game laws is a very simple one, and 

 easily understood by those, who wish to do so." In proof of 

 the simplicity of the system, and of the ease with which it 

 can be understood, " A Member of the Nova Scotia Game 

 Protection Society" immediately falls into a serious en or, 

 and, strangely enough, makes precisely the same mistake that 

 I did. He says: " Game licenses are granted to persons 

 not having their domiciles in Nova Scotia, who may wish to 

 hunt therein, for which a fee of thirty dollars is charged for 

 one year ; this is a general license for the whole province (the 

 italics are the writer's) and they are issued in Halifax 

 , . . " This statement is entirely incorrect. On the 

 back of my license, I find the following-: "Extract from 

 Chap, 24, Statutes of 1870 ; No person not having his domi- 

 cile in the province of Nova Scotia shall be allowed to kill, 

 or pursue with intent to kill any of the animals or birds in- 

 cluded in the term game as defined in this act without having 

 first obtained a license for the purpose signed by the pro- 

 vincial Secretary and chief Game Commissioner from the 

 Clerk of Uu i ■ ny county h & strict when ihexme 

 is to in . r in if,, em of incorporated 



counties, jrom any Clerk of ,,,unici]mlitie*vM>n«u& 



it is necessary that a license should be taken out in the dis- 

 trict in which it is to be used. In consequence of my 

 ignorance of this peculiarity of the law, an ignorance shared, 

 I am consoled to see, by a member of the Game Society ot 

 Nova Scotia, I got into difficulties. In common with him, 

 I entertained the belief that a general license for the whole 

 province could be obtained in Halifax, and ae'eel on that be- 

 lief. I entered Nova Scotia from St. John, New Brunswick, 

 byway of Annapolis. I telegraphed from St. John to Mr. 

 James Scott, of this city, to send stores to Caledonia, and to 

 obtain and send with them licenses for myself, and my 

 friend, Mr. Jennings. I received a reply from him to the ef- 

 fect that the stores would he sent next morning by express, 

 and that the licenses would follow by mail. Acting on this 

 advice, J went into the woods in the full belief that my 

 license had been obtained. On former occasions, on which I 

 had adopted this course, had received my license from Hali- 

 fax, and I was unaware that any alteration had been made in 

 the law, and the license applied for in Halifax, a fact which 

 the authorities must have known, for the warden who took 

 out the warrant against me told mo he was aware of it. The 

 money was tendered, but it could not be issued for the 

 reasons mentioned in the above quotation from the act of 

 1870. Of this fact I received no notification whatever. 



Your correspondent is also in error in stating that if the 

 bearer of a license shall not kill the prescribed number of 

 animals in any one district he can do so in any other, upon 

 making affidavit before the Game Commissioner of the num- 

 ber he previously shot. The affidavit must be made before a 

 Clerk of the peace. "A Member of the Nova Scotia Game 

 Society" credits me with superhuman attributes, and declares 

 that on my return 1 gave Halifax a wide berth. How a man 

 can return to a place, and at the same time give it a wide 

 berth, is difficult to understand. At any rate, I did not per- 

 form that complicated manoeuvre, for" I went straight to 

 Halifax from Queen's county, where the arrest took place. 

 Your correspondent thinks very lightly of an illegal arrest ; 

 he looks upon it as B mere pardonable blunder. He would 

 probably consider it merely a blunder on the part of a sheriff 

 to bang a man without waiting for the ordinary formalities 

 of trial, conviction and sentence. Such loose views as to 

 individual liberty are not accj pied by EngliBhrnenin general. 

 I do not know how far familiarity with the process ot being 

 arrest* d might breed contempt for it, but as far as I am con-. 

 cerned, the ei rieni ■ uovej and disagreeable I enter- 

 tain thi ■ ■■■ i ioi i being arrested fi r a fine before 

 a fine is imposed W hatever peculiar views your correspond- 

 ent may entertain as I . due from man to, man, 

 1 think he must all IW that even '•■a live lord" has a right to 

 expect to lie treated in a legal mf| 



The explanation wh res-ponrlfint gives of the 



motives of the r Pi I ration Society is totally uncalled 



lor. No one supposes that their object is to make money 

 Out of strangers. No one Dan regret more than I do that 

 their efforts to preserve the game of JSbva Scotia from 

 threatened destruction have not met with greater 

 The law, as it stands, is inadequate for the purpose, and is 

 inadequately administered. I believe one or two convictions 



have been obtained against inhabitants for killing lafge i ah 

 lities of moose out of season by illegal means; but as a rule 

 the law is a dead letter as far as I he natives of the province 

 are concerned. More especially is this the case in respect of 

 the number of moose and caribou that may be killed. The 

 rule is openly broken in all directions. It is considered only 

 to refer to strangers, and is absolutely and avowedly inopera- 

 tive against natives. Iu such oases s 1 rangers and residents 

 ought to be on an equal footing; as regards licenses the C kSe 

 is different". 



1 have heard Nova Seotians call in question the wisdom of 

 a policy of taxing the importation of foreign capital by de- 

 manding license fees from strangers, who spend a good deal 

 (if money among the poorer classes at a lime of year when 

 labor is difficult to obtain, They think that it tends to defer 

 sportsmen from visiting the country. But it is not likely 

 that any men who could afford to come to luis country from 

 Europe or the States to spend an autumn holiday would ob- 

 ject to paying for the privilege of shooting, and as money 

 is required for the purposes of Ihe game societies. I think a 

 system of licenses affords a legitimate means of doing so. 

 Whether it should be restricted to strangersjonly is a matter 

 for consideration. 



Should you or any of your acquaintances be going into the 

 woods you would do well to take with you a copy of the 

 game laws, the problems contained therein would beguile the 

 long horns of the winter's nights. For instance, a man must 

 take out his license in the county or municipal district in which 

 he proposes to pursue moose; but, if he pursues his moose 

 into another county or district he is liable to a fine if he 

 does not get his lincense indorsed. The county lines are not 

 very clearly defined in the primeval forest; it would not 

 much mend matters, however, if they were. A man might 

 pursue a moose and wound him in one district and be com- 

 pelled to follow it into another to kill it. The proper course, 

 I presume, for him to adopt on arriving at the county Hue 

 would be to go back to camp, pack up his trap !, and go out 

 to settlement-, w hich might take a couple days or so. He 

 should then proceed lo Ihe residence of the Clerk of the peace, 

 which would take a day, and having got. his indorsement on 

 the license should return to look for the moose, which would 

 occupy several days more. But by this time the moose 

 would be dead and the meat spoiled, and for allowing 

 it to spoil the hunter is liable to a heavy fine. It may be 

 said that such a case would involve a mere technical breach 

 of the letter of the law. That is true, but it would not be- 

 more technical than in my case. It appears, moreover, by 

 the act that if a game warden, who would get half the fine, 

 should chose to take action in such a case, the magistrates 

 would have no option. 



I leave it to you, sir, to judge whether the game laws are 

 remarkable for the extreme simplicity claimed for them, and 

 whether you are quite correct iu stating, that, in the letter of 

 " A Member of the Game Protection Society," you were 

 "publishing from a responsible source a true statement of 

 the case." Duxravbn. 



A NEBRASKA DEER HUNT. 



O'Neill City, Neb., Dec. 1, 1881. 

 Editor Forest and Stream : 



Nebraska sportsmen evidently do not appreciate your 

 valuable journal as they ought ; at least, they do not make 

 use of your columns to tell of one of the best game countries 

 in the west. One of the most interesting and popular fea- 

 tures of any paper is the correspondence. This is particu- 

 larly the case with Forest and Stream, not meaning to 

 cast reflections on the ability of its corps of editorial writers, 

 but simply because the lover of true sport likes to read of the 

 exploits of bis brethren, even though he himself is hundreds 

 of miles from the scene of action. This being the case I 

 will tell of a week's hunt just made in the sand hills of 

 Northern Nebraska by Mr. Ed. S. Kinch, an old hunler, re- 

 cently of Edinburgh, Pa., Mr. Charles Shepard, a jolly rail- 

 road contractor on the S. C. <fc P. R. R., Mr. Merritt, a 

 disciple of Biackstone, located at Penisbury, this State, and 

 the writer, who, being a Frontier newspaper man, knows 

 how lo fully enjoy a good hunting trip. 



Well, the party left O'Neill, which is the county seat of 

 Holt county, on the night of Thanksgiving, going by rail to 

 Long Pine, the present terminus of the 8. C. it P. Long 

 Pine is 75 miles west of O'Neill in the unorganized territory, 

 is Only about two months' old, and is au ideal frontier town, 

 where saloons, railroad men, and the festive and much-licd- 

 about cow-boy take the prominent parts in the theatre of life. 

 It is, indeed, a red-hot place, and getting hotter every day. 

 There is a large herd of antelope near Long Pine, and 

 several times they have visited the town, and at each visit 

 several have been killed, the citizens grabbing their guns 

 and revolvers, and banging away with great recklessness and 

 indiscrimination. 



From Long Pine we took a livery, and a twenty-mile ride 

 over the beautiful rolling prairie brought us to Plum Creek, 

 a flue stream of pure, soft water, running in a very deep 

 gulf, either bauk being lined with pine, cedar, oak, 

 and Cottonwood, and a favorite resort for both white and 

 black-tailed deer. Just now, however, they arc very scarce 

 along the creek, the railroad graders and settlers having 

 driven them back into the sand-hills. It was necessary to 

 get back into the hills, and so Shepard rigged up his wagon 

 with cover, and loading an ample supply of grub, blankets, 

 cooking utensils, etc., the party pulled ou'. Reaching the 

 head waters of the Plum, the boys took a tramp in the adja- 

 cent hills, and when night came and all hud returned, it was 

 found that Shepard had bagged a due black-tailed buekfawn. 

 This was encouraging, and we turned iufor the night, dream- 

 ing of deer innumerable. The coyotes made a terrible 

 racket, but we managed to get a good night's sleep just the 

 same. Bright and early all hands turned out, and, after 

 bracing up with coffee and bread, the boys struck out full of 

 hope. At noon all had returned. Kinch was the only one 

 that smiled. " Boys, fetch up the mull s ; I have some work 

 for you." And he did. About two miles from camp he had 

 struck a buflch of five deer, $wo h .vs andadoe, 



and be had d me ;- . ts i record. He 



killed every one of the five firing • from his 



Tbi9 was the total for the day, but it was 



enough to make us all hippy, though perhaps a trifle envious 

 of the in J. j i 'ei'eviv niiaii. The afternoon and evenii 

 devoted to dressing the game. It wag estimated one of the 

 ■ i, :u k-.,-ui j won • I 10(1 lbs 



The next morning early we pulled stakes and hi 

 southwest to the Sand Hill Lakes. I ick out 



on foot. In a couple of hours the report of a double-bar- 

 reled shot-gun was heard, snel in a few moments the figure 

 of a man appeared on the point of a high hill gesticulating 

 in a frantic manner. It was the newspaper man. As it was 



not far, Shepherd headed the mules that way, and soon all 

 ham's were gazing in admiration on a magnificent buck and 

 doe, both having succumbed to the call of the 12 lb. Scott 

 breech-loader. If au editor was ever proud it was this one, and 

 don't you forget it. We load our shells for deer hunting with 

 CiV drams of powder, and 12 buck-shot encased in a por- 

 tion of a No. 12 paper shell. This will carry 100 yards be- 

 fore breaking and with the accuracy of a rifle ball. 



During the afternoon Merritt got a shot at a doe and broke 

 one e>f its forelegs. After considerable chasing he was 

 again shot aud brought down. 



That night we camped by one of the several lakes about 

 twenty miles southwest of Plum Creek. The next forenoon 

 Shepard got another faw T n and a doe. The rest of us had 

 no luck. "Ranch's five, it seemed, was his allotment. Al- 

 though we hunted here two days we failed to make another 

 scored ami time being up we started homeward. We had 

 got about half way when the keen eye of the lawyer de- 

 tected a bunch of deer feeding on the side of a hill about a 

 mile distant. Hurriedly unhitching the mules we proceeded 

 to surprise the unsuspicious enemy. Three of us made a 

 circle so as to get on the side favorable to the wind, and one 

 struck out straight toward them. The sequel we are all 

 ashamed of, and will make it brief. There were eight deer 

 and although we all had fair shots, not one was successful. 

 The buck fever raged badly. The writer fired two shots at 

 a fine doe not thirty yards distant, and never raised a hair. 

 Ho had eyes for the game, not for the sights of his gun. We 

 all returned to the wagon— disgusted, each one cursing his 

 neighbor for his own ill luck. 



We now pulled straight for the Plum, where we arrived 

 in due time, from there returned to Long Pine aud took the 

 cars for home. Everything considered, it was an enjoyable 

 trip and we are determined to repeat it in the near future. 

 W. D. Matukws. 



P. 8.— Hallock, in the Gazetteer, says that black-tail deer 

 are only found in the thick brush on the Pacific coast, and 

 that they are not good eating. We differ with him. Here 

 we find black-tail in the sand-hills, far away from timber, 

 aud I hey are, if anything, superior to the white-tail as an ar- 

 ticle of food. 



[This is not the true black tail, but the mule-deer, which 

 is one of the most delicious of the Cervidm.~] 



DEER IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 



Ed.ilvr Forest and Stream : 



In the " Cruise of the Nipper," published in your last 

 issue, mention is made of a dinner given at Dunakin's Camp, 

 on Fourth Lake, Fulton Chain, in July last, and that State 

 Game Protector Dodge was one of the guests. The " glum 

 looks" of the officer, as he tasted the gamy flavor of the 

 "mutton" (?) mentioned by " Nessmuk," must have meant 

 something, for suit was brought against Dtmakin for having 

 venison in possession during the close season. Others, who 

 thought it a good joke on Dodge to invite him to eat 

 "crooked meat," Ija've also had an opportunity to tell what 

 they know about eating venison in July. The gentlemen 

 mentioned by "Nessmuk" are royal good fellows, and enter- 

 tained their company grandly on the c.ccasion spoken of ; 

 but they were setting a bad example by putting venison on 

 their bill of fare at that lime, and had the State officer 

 allowed it to pass unnoticed, it would have established a bad 

 precedent, for no matter how flagranta violation might have 

 occurred, after that he would have been powerless to enforce 

 the. law. The majority of the guides on the Fulton Chain 

 are anxious to have the laws for the protection of fish aud 

 game enforced. They realize that to perpetuate tbeir occu- 

 pation the close season must be respected, and that class of 

 guides were glad to see the case mentioned above prosecuted. 



Protectors may be feasted and flattered into shutting their 

 eyes to open violations, but that is not the record of the 

 officer referred to in this article. Wherever he has found a 

 case he has prosecuted it, no matter whether it hit a fiiend 

 or foe, but, always, too, with the best of feeling, with no ill- 

 will or malice on his part, but simply a performance of his 

 duty. During the last year he has brought, or caused to be 

 brought, between twenty -five and thirty cases for violations 

 of the different sections of the game laws, and his work is 

 having quite a visible effect. Although the violations pro- 

 bably' can never be wholly stopped, any more than violation 

 of all other laws, yet it is already evident that there begins 

 to be a general feeling that, the laws are going to be enforced, 

 and the open high-handed disregard of the law we have been 

 accustomed to in the Adirondacks already begins to be a 

 thing of the past. I hope that the good work may continue, 

 and that the State force may be reorganized, so it will be 

 still more efficient. Zaoit. 



Nbw York, Dec. 13. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The suggestions made by your correspondent "Mussit " in 

 regard to the laws for protecting deer are most excellent. I 

 judge him to be a man of great experience and thoroughly 

 acquainted with the habits of deer. 



We want laws for hetter protection of deer in the Adiron- 

 dacks, adjacent territory, and other regions of wilderness of 

 this State,' and laws that will provide for an increase of the 

 deer supply instead of otherwise. Considerable correspond- 

 ence was elicited through the publications of 'communica- 

 tions to your valuable paper last year and good information 

 obtained. Sufficient, however, has been the experience of 

 th'i best hunters of this State and the regions referred to 

 above to make their suggestions for framing laws on this 

 subject of practical value. I do not claim the enviable po- 

 sition as one of them, but, without egotism, freely say I 

 recognize l he necessities of limiting still further the hounding 

 of deer. Go to Long Island aud Pennsylvania for examples 

 of necessity for protecting deer that they may increase. The 

 scarcity arose from hounding; it is undeniable. Although 

 to me there is "music" in the method of hunting 

 hounds, I would cheerfully forego all pleasure of the kind 

 for the sake of having deer better protected or preserved. 

 Perhaps we do not require so much attention given to the 

 HI ion id' deer us we do for iheir preservation Thor- 

 oiighlv attend to the latter and the former will take care of 

 itself." The records of results of hounding deer during lb* 

 past two years, if published, would sadden the most obdurate 

 hunter. 



I see "S. S. N " comes to the front, with anxiety, in a let- 

 ter published Nov. 3. Perhaps he would be too exacting; 

 some changes should be made is very evident l o all 

 a interest in prolonging sport. 



1 should like to know if the sale of venison is to be per- 

 mitted this winter in our markets, as it was last, in open vio- 

 lation of the law. If so, ihere will be a necessity f t 



