102 



RECREATION. 



it obstructs passage across large districts 

 without any compensating public benefit. 



There are plenty of sportsmen who can 

 perfectly well afford an interest in a pre- 

 serve, but who would not feel any enthusi- 

 asm for such shooting. When things are 

 cut and dried and organized for you, you 

 feel as if your guide were a day nurse 

 taking you out for an airing and feeding 

 you through a rubber tube. I, for one, 

 "wish to feel as if I were fishing and shoot- 

 ing on equal terms with the rest of the 

 world ; the love of the mystery of new 

 surroundings will long prevent me from 

 wishing to do the thing in the conventional 

 way. 



It must be conceded that there are con- 

 ditions under which preserves are right and 

 beneficial. They are certainly better than 

 inefficient laws and lax administrations. 

 The cheap sport who wants to get a day's 

 shooting for nothing is detestable. To draw 

 a circle with a 15 mile radius around our 

 great cities, within which no shooting 

 would be permitted, would be quite reason- 

 able. . To limit the bag to protect depleted 

 disti s for a term of years, to impose 

 special licenses on guns and hunting dogs 

 are all available means if the machine 

 can only be put in working order. At 

 present, with half way laws, and half way 

 enforcement, with farmers in some locali- 

 ties feeding the birds through the winter, 

 in place of its being done by wardens ; and 

 with streams polluted by one man and pre- 

 served by another, the owners of preserves 

 have the best of the situation. 



Wm. M. Elliott, Baltimore, Md. 



WHERE TO GET GAME. 



I have received many inquiries from your 

 readers in regard to the game in this sec- 

 tion of country. On that point all the 

 American sportsmen who have hunted in 

 this section agree that we have more moose 

 and caribou to the square mile than any 

 other place in America, or possibly the 

 world. Nevertheless, on account of the 

 density of our forests the game is as hard 

 to see as ghosts. With the exception of the 

 lakes, this country is a jungle; and when 

 the game is on the alert you must keep well 

 to cover. 



Anyone who will write to James E. Pat- 

 terson, McKeesport, Pa., or M. L. Shover, 

 of Ostrander, Ohio, can get full information 

 as to chances for getting game here. 



Mr. Shover killed 2 as fine specimens of 

 caribou and moose as it would be possible 

 to find anywhere. His caribou was a sight, 

 and more than a sight; it was a miracle. 

 It had 46 points, and the brow antler had 14 

 points. It was undoubtedly a stranger to 

 this side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and 

 probably came from Ugavie by way of 

 Quebec. I had seen him alive 3 times, and 



saw him after Mr. Shover shot him. Out 

 of some hundreds I never saw one like him. 



We had several real American sportsmen 

 here last fall, and in all there were about 35 

 moose killed in the vicinity of Chioman. 



From several letters I have received from 

 sportsmen they seem to think I am a guide. 

 This is , not so. I rarely guide anyone, 

 though I^have engaged supplies, guides and 

 teams for several Americans, but I have 

 never charged them a cent, and will con- 

 tinue on this line. 



I will cheerfully answer all inquiries to 

 the best of my ability. I do this in order 

 to protect strangers from sharps, who are 

 to be found here as in all hunting countries. 



1 have no ax to grind. This is a lumbering 

 country and there are several thorough 

 woodsmen who make good guides, but none 

 of them have any hunting camps, nor do 

 they make a business of supplying parties. 

 Sportsmen can get everything they need at 

 Chipman, pay for it themselves, load it on 

 wagons and go straignt to the hunting" 

 grounds. Teams cost $3.50 to $4 a day, for 



2 horses, a lumber wagon and a driver. 

 Guides charge $2 to $3 a day. We have 

 trout and salmon in our rivers, but poor 

 canoeing in summer on account of low 

 water. The Salmon river is the only stream 

 here that a canoe can be used on, and in 

 a dry season it is difficult to run. 



P. H. Welch, Chipman, N. B., Canada. 



THE OVERLAND MAIL. 



L. L. BALES. 



A stranger to the Northland would be 

 utterly lost on any of the vast reaches of 

 frozen tundra found near the Bering sea 

 coast of Alaska. Especially would he be 

 so during one of the blinding snow storms 

 that visit that section ; but the native to 

 the tundra born, is as certain of his course 

 as the wild goose in its unerring flight. 



One year ago last April I arrived at 

 Captain Moore's place on the North mouth 

 of the Yukon river, outward bound from 

 Nome to Seattle. It was late in the sea- 

 son and I was making a forced march with 

 an important mail, including government 

 dispatches and many love tokens, equally 

 precious. Storm or no storm, the only 

 thing to do was "mush." Although famil- 

 iar with winter traveling in Alaska, usually 

 alone, and accustomed to taking desperate 

 chances, I hesitated before striking out in 

 the bitterly cold, blinding, shrieking snow 

 storm then raging. It was 1 p. m., and I 

 had 25 miles to make across the tundra to 

 a native igloo, near New Hamilton. 



Captain Moore suggested that I take a 

 native and his dog team. I did so. We 

 took a 5 mile pace and kept it up ; the 

 native running- ahead of the dogs and I 

 running behind the sleigh. The native 

 never swerved from his course and only 



