THE REFERENDUM 



363 



deal that season, T did not bring down an- 

 other partridge, notwithstanding that I did 

 my very best. I never could understand why 

 I should have killed the only two birds [ suc- 

 ceeded in getting with the first two shots 

 1 fired. R. G. Budd. 



MOKE FAKE NATURAL HISTORY. 



Editor Recreation : 



The month of April brought out an article 

 published in a popular magazine which will 

 doubtless be taken for authority and believed 

 by a great number of its readers. The article 

 I refer to is "The Fan-tail Deer." The 

 writer, he of "The Vanishing Beaver," a 

 "trained woodsman and naturalist," doubtless 

 more of a woodsman than naturalist, says that 

 this "American gazelle" was formerly quite 

 plentiful along certain streams of the North- 

 west, but at the present day only occasionally 

 a specimen is found. It is a singular fact 

 that of all the naturalists and hunters roam- 

 ing the great Northwest in quest of knowl- 

 edge and game, that this gentleman is the 

 first who ever gave an account of the only 

 "gazelle" ever found in North America. The 

 article is accompanied by three illustrations 

 from photographs of the "Fan-tail," tw.o of 

 which were probably taken of live deer, but 

 there is one entitled "The Windmill Fighter/' 

 which shows a buck in the act of trying to 

 push over a small tree. In setting up a dead, 

 stiff deer for a photograph which is supposed 

 to fool the people, it seems to me that a 

 trained woodsman ( ?) would know that a 

 buck would never attempt to fight or uproot 

 a forest with his forelegs spread at an angle 

 of about 45 degrees, but would have them 

 close together and a trifle back, so that he 

 could put some strength into the operation. 

 The picture of the buck shows _ no strength 

 whatever and is a very poor imitation. The 

 writer ought to have one of his "Fan-tails" 

 attached to an electric fan and placed in a 

 position where it would prevent such an 

 imaginative brain from being over heated 

 while contriving his numerous fake articles. 

 May we hear more from the gentleman from 

 Montana and some more of his recent dis- 

 coveries. C. L. Dewey. 



THEN AND NOW. 



Editor Recreation : 



When John Brown tried to establish a set- 

 tlement on township No. 4, in the heart of 

 the Adirondacks, far back from any inhabi- 

 tants, my father was one of the first to 

 move into the wilderness. This was in 1826. 

 And I* was born three years after. A few 

 other settlers followed. But the climate was 

 cold and land unproductive, and settlers soon 

 became discouraged, and most of them re- 

 turned to civilization, leaving my father with 

 one or two other families here. 



I think that fondness for hunting and fish 

 ing kept my father from following the other 

 settlers' example. I had some older brothers, 

 who, like all boys, liked to hunt and fish. 

 Deer and trout were abundant. There was 

 no money to be had, and venison was the only 

 commodity that we had to export, coupled 

 with furs, for which we could get any money. 

 Venison buyers would come round as early 

 as June and July to contract for venison to 

 be killed in the fall and up to January 1st, 

 which, at that time, was the commencement 

 of the close season. So you see we had to 

 hunt or starve. 



Although we had to sell the venison at 

 starvation prices, buyers would only take the 

 saddles or hind quarters, for which they paid 

 us 3 cents per pound, and in later years 3^2, 

 4. and the last years I hunted, 5 cents per 

 pound. We would commence hunting as soon 

 as it got cold enough to keep the saddles, say 

 November 1st. Sixty-two deer from that 

 time to January 1st w*as my biggest record. 

 About 2.000 deer is my total record. Myself 

 and brothers were the best hunters here. 

 From 10 to 20 deer in one fall would be the 

 full average of others. 



But times changed, and I long since ceased 

 to kill venison for sale, but have given much 

 away. For the last 25 years I have labored 

 hard for the protection of the deer, and have 

 spent many hundred dollars in the cause. 

 Especially did I abhor hounding of deer, and 

 to protect the deer around me I rented 50,- 



000 acres and put thereon two protectors, 

 with instructions to catch any hounds found 

 running on the premises, bring them to me, 

 where I would keep them, and return to 

 owner on proof that they did not come onto 

 the grounds to put out their hounds or to 

 watch for the deer on the premises. I there- 

 by saved thousands of deer. 



In 1870 I started a hotel on the site of my 

 father's house which now has a capacity of 

 200 guests. I finally thought I was too old 

 to run it, so I gave it to my daughter, and 

 retired from business, but not from hunting. 



1 have so far killed my legal number of deer. 

 Flave a game preserve of my own, and a little 

 log house, the same as you have, where I 

 spend much of my time in summer. It u 

 located on a small lake, which supports more 

 trout than any other lake in the Adirondacks 

 of its size. This preserve is distinct from the 

 Fenton Game Preserve Association, which, 

 by the way, now offers the best opportunity 

 for sportsmen to obtain an opportunity to get 

 an interest in the best game preserve in the 

 Adirondacks. 



The Fenton Game Preserve Association has 

 43,000 acres of the best deer and trout coun- 

 try to be found in the Adirondacks. Deer are 

 very plentiful on every part of it. The mem- 

 bership fee is ten dollars annually. It looks 

 to me like the last good chance to procure an 



