FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



377 



him to my uncle. He dressed him, and the 

 next day told me I did not shoot the goose. 

 Though I insisted I did, he would not be- 

 lieve me. He said he examined the bird 

 thoroughly, and could not find a shot or 

 mark of a shot. My grandfather overheard 

 this conversation and asked where the 

 head of the gander was. It was found and 

 dissected. A BB shot had gone into his 

 ear and killed him; and yet no mark of 

 a shot could be found until the head was 

 cut open. I thought I had broken his wing 

 with my shot, but instead it was broken 

 by the fall. The old gander who leads a 

 flock is always turning his head from side 

 to side. In this case, his head was turned 

 at a correct angle for the shot to enter his 

 ear. The shot in the antelope might have 

 gone into the ear, and not through the 

 head, and consequently left no mark. 



Chas. H. Nye, Cincinnati, Ohio. 



a mt. McGregor coon hunt. 



R. P. SCHERMEEHORN. 



On and near Mt. McGregor, S l / 2 miles 

 from Saratoga Springs, game of many 

 kinds is still plentiful and even a deer is oc- 

 casionally seen. 



My story has to do with raccoons, which 

 were quite plentiful in '93. My brother and 

 I accidentally came into possession of a dog 

 that would hunt them in a business like 

 manner, and we spent many a pleasant hour 

 in coon hunting. 



One warm dark night in early November, 

 we took our dog and went up the road 

 which leads to the hotel on the mountain. 

 When he showed by his actions, that he 

 scented coons, we unleashed him and he 

 soon treed 2 in a chestnut. As we could see 

 them against the sky, we brought them 

 down with a charge of shot. 



Following a ravine, we struck another 

 trail which ended, a mile or more away, at 

 the foot of a pine about 8 inches in diame- 

 ter and 50 feet tall, and almost without 

 branches. We could not see the coons. 

 Though we generally climbed the trees in 

 such cases, we sometimes cut them; and 

 this was one of the times. With the tree 

 fell 2 coons. One the dog quickly caught 

 and killed. The other didn't stay to see the 

 fun. My companion was near the second 

 coon so I could not bring my gun into use, 

 and the coon started to climb another tree. 

 My friend ran toward him, striking at him 

 with a club. Just as he reached the tree, 

 the club caught the coon on the nose. At 

 the same instant my friend's feet flew from 

 under him, on the slippery pine needles, 

 and he sat down, while the coon tumbled 

 right in his lap. The coon and the man 

 scratched around, each trying to get away 

 from the other, and both rolling toward the 

 bottom of the little hill they were on. I 

 don't think I could have helped the poor 



boy if his life had depended on it. I had no 

 time to stop laughing. But the dog rushed 

 in and saved him; for which he was so 

 thankful that, in trying to help the dog, he 

 hit him across the nose and knocked him 

 down. This sobered the fun, but the dog 

 was all right in 5 minutes and wanted more 

 coons; and in 5 more had one treed in an 

 immense hemlock. I cut a small tree, and 

 leaning it against the lower branches of the 

 large one, was soon after the coon. He 

 went straight for the top of the tree and I 

 followed him. When I got near enough to 

 see him, I called to the boys below to be 

 ready and reached for my revolver. Be- 

 fore I could shoot he jumped from the top 

 of the tree and landed down the hill, a clear 

 jump of no feet. Before the boys got to 

 him, he was away, and he ran 150 yards be- 

 fore the dog caught him. He must have 

 been injured by his jump for he ran under 

 a little bridge and waited for us to come and 

 finish him. 



Starting almost at the foot of the tree, 

 the dog ran down the creek some distance 

 and found a coon among some bowlders, 

 not 2 feet from the water. He brought the 

 coon out, and standing in the water, shook 

 the poor beast to death. 



Shortly after this, we started another trail 

 and got 2 more coons up a chestnut; mak- 

 ing 8 in about 5 hours. Going home, the 

 dog killed a skunk, which being a nice black 

 one, we added to our catch. 

 • We caught in n nights 48 coons. Others 

 caught 12 more with this dog last fall. Our 

 coon skins brought us an average of 74 

 cents each, and we saved 10 gallons of oil 

 which we sold for $1 a gallon. 



Our outfit was an axe, a gun, a revolver, 

 a bottle of kerosene oil to light fires or 

 torches with, and a lantern for every 2 per- 

 sons. I have known this dog to keep a 

 coon treed n hours. 



CATCHING AND SHIPPING DEER. 



FRANKLIN L. PAYNE. 



Two years ago about 35 deer, which 

 had been kept in a 5 acre enclosure, at the 

 Soldiers' Home, Leavenworth, Kan., were 

 caught and crated for shipment. Nearly 

 all were full grown, and several of the 

 larger bucks had become vicious. So it 

 was decided to send the entire bunch to 

 Mr. Chester Chapin's game preserve, on 

 the Delaware river in New York. 



All the plans conceivable for their trans- 

 portation were discussed, but none seemed 

 practical. Finally Mr. Charles Payne, of 

 Wichita, Kan., was sent for, to superintend 

 the undertaking. He is a dealer in wild 

 animals, and has invented a crate for the 

 transportation of deer, which is eminently 

 successful. He brought a sufficient number 

 of crates and, with a corps of assistants, 

 went to work. 



