164 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 27, 1884. 



day. What is there in the sounds down the hollow of the 

 forest gloom that tells of danger? What instinct leads him 

 among the shadows by the brook, through the clearing, 

 down the path to the 'sugar camp, and stays his feet from 

 circling flight just where I entered the thicket? See how he 

 tracks the danger past his nest, and circling once aa'aiu to 

 spy the ambush, if one there be, creeps back among the 

 briers to dream away the clay. Oh, unseen Hand, thou 

 great Creator, how perfect the workings of Thy laws! 



On up the steep path I am climbing. I hear the red fox 

 barking among the rocks above me; I hear the brotherhood 

 of winds tuning their harps amid the swaying, shivering 

 trees, but riot a bird cheeis me on my way with a note of 

 welcome. Across the valley I see the crow climbing the 

 blast with lazy wing, and perching upon the topmost branch 

 of the highest oak, laughs at the storm . Ominous bird ! 



Time's corroding touch may scar the beauty of the highest 

 art, time may streAv the hills with mouldering monarcbs of 

 a royal forest, time may shepherd the deeds of great men 

 upon the highlands of the past, yet time seems never to dim 

 the tire In the eye of this robber drifting upon the tide of 

 idle years, yea, shiftless years: he does no deeds that call for 

 praise; he forms no tender ties to stay his flight, when fancy 

 leads to some adventure far beyond the confiues of the day. 

 He haunts the woods, the cliffs, the highest hills, the valleys 

 low and damp, and loves to linger near the cabin home of 

 the pioneer, not, however, to admire the laborer who is stud- 

 ding the crown of poverty with gems of righteous deeds, and 

 who, with toiiing hands'is sealing withinike tomb of day, 

 just acts, that shall be golden recompense in vast eternity, 

 but to steal anything that may be found loose. 



Far from the stately city he plumes iris ebon wing and 

 patrols all the country side with Saracenic vigilance. No 

 scene too sacred, no borderland to stay the passage of his un- 

 tamed wing. 



Swinging from the elm near the church, he has watched 

 the funeral pall pass to the grave, and when the rattling 

 clods were awakening hollow echoes to read the closing 

 chapter in the book of life, then was his cry the loudest. 



Woe to the nestling when his wing 'shades the nest. 

 Brothers, an ounce and a half of No. 6 shot is always taken 

 at par by the crow family. 



Darker and darker grows the day. Great, lumbering old 

 blasts come groaning and complaining over the western 

 hills. The archers of the storm king are feathering the red 

 roof of yon distant barn with arrows of snow. The loud- 

 voiced farmer calls his flock home from the broken hills. 

 Through the drifting storm I hear their tardy feet hastening 

 down the stony path to battened stalls and manger fat with 

 salted hay. The house-wife stands with shining pail in 

 hand a writing the coming herd. Hissing geese crowd 

 around the corn-crib door and watch the golden stores with 

 hungry eyes; turkeys peep and gobble in the distant orchard; 

 complaining chickens crowd the garden fence, while on the 

 oak, that stands way down the lawn, the peafowl has a 

 perch, and from this "airy post will sound the charge for 

 every circling squadron of the storm throughout the night. 

 A bright wood hre snaps and cracks on the kitchen hearth. 

 I would love to sit an hour by the cheerful blaze. I would 

 love to linger longer on ihis'sea, open to winter gales, but a 

 safe harborage from the whirlwinds of passion and ambition 

 that are laying the wrecks of human expectation thick along 

 the shores of time. 



But past the farmhouse and the sheltering fold my path 

 leads over the dark fields. Night is scaling the walls of the 

 horizon, and the brotherhood* has an old hurricane headed 

 through the portals of the west. 



There by that mass of broken stone and scattered moulder- 

 ing logs, was once the home of the first settler in this "dis- 

 trict." There young hands first took up their tasks of 

 life; their necessity ruled and exiled pleasure's cause was 

 never plead. And of the fruits of that forgotten seeding 

 time, we have this desolate ruin, which is the chaff the 

 marching years have left upon the thrashing floor of time. 

 Poor Ben Johnson ! They say he loved the woods too well; 

 his gun was his constant companion, and the music of the 

 forest the destroyer of his earthly prospects. His keen eye 

 interpreted the unwritten language of nature, and his sou] 

 was jubilant as he heard the Creator's praise syllabled in the 

 song service of the birds. The sturdy arm that blazed a 

 trail up into this Eden wielded a scepter that preserved it for 

 sixty years. But when at last he was laid to rest, the venge- 

 ful axe swept away his treasures; and, ere hong, some sacri- 

 legious hand erected this legend above his neglected and 

 brier-eovered grave, "No limiting Allowed Upon These 

 Premises!" 



Who enjoys more fully, who can comprehend more 

 clearly, the divine wonders of this world than the sports- 

 man wandering through field and wood? Follow him with 

 gun afield, or with clicking reel by the quick waters, and 

 you will find his actions tempered "with reason and his eye 

 keenly observant of all that is beautiful around him. Could 

 we have watched Ben Johnson awake to his first sunrise 

 among the blue hills of eternity, is it not possible we would 

 have heard him exclaim, "I thank You, oh, God! that it is 

 Thy pleasure that 1 enjoy forever in Thy kingdom what 

 was allowed me in life; communion at Thy altar and among 

 Thy subjects!" 



Can the human heart conceive grander or more magnifi- 

 cent scenes than the sportsman finds in his travels? 



Pardon me for getting into the woods, but I am out. 



Parson O'Gath. 



Wildfowl in New Brunswick. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: Those who read the first paper on the "Cruise of 

 the Alice May," in the February Century, have thereby been 

 introduced by Mr. Benjamin to one of the best sea-fowl 

 shooting grounds in Canada. On both shores of the North- 

 umberland Straits, and along the noith shore of New Bruns- 

 wick, from this date to the middle of May the wild geese, 

 brant and black ducks alight on the shore flats to feed and 

 rest on their way north to their hatching grounds in Labra- 

 dor. They are hunted and shot from boats about ten feet 

 long, rigged up with side paddle wheels like a miniature 

 steamer. Each boat only accommodates one man, who pro- 

 pels himself with cranks which act directly on the paddle 

 wheels. When he gets near enough to the birds, which he 

 can do readily enough among the huge blocks of floating ice, 

 he seizes his gun ami blazes away. From one hundred to 

 one hundred and fifty birds are often bagged in a day in 

 this way by the more experienced gunueis, who can stand 

 the wear and tear of tiiat means of propulsion. A few 

 pioneer flocks of the geese have been seen within the last 

 few days. It will yet require several steady south winds 

 and warmer weather to make the shooting season regularly 

 open.— B. (New Brunswick, March 19). 



iw[al !§i§torg. 



THE DEER OF THE OTTAWA VALLEY. 



RT WILLIAM PITTMAN LETT. 



[Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of the Citv of Ottawa, On- 

 tario, Canada, on the 13th day of March, 1884.] 



[Concluded from Page 144.] 



THE common deer, Genus viryinianus, so named on ac- 

 count of the species having been first discovered by 

 Europeans in Virginia. This idea was in the mind of Rob- 

 ert Burns when he said : 



"Lord, I'se hae sporting bye an 'bye, 



For my gowd guinea, 

 Tho' I should herd the buckskin kye 



For't in Virginia." 



The Virginian deer is one of the most graceful and beauti- 

 ful types of the deer genus, and is so well known that it is 

 almost superfluous to describe it. Generally speaking, the 

 male only of this animal has horns. I have seen, however, 

 within the last three years, two does brought to Ottawa mar- 

 ket, each of which had small horns, somewhat resembling 

 the antlers of a "spike-horned" deer; and, although the time 

 was late in the season, the velvet still remained on the horns. 

 These are the only instances in which I have noticed horns 

 on the female of this species. 



The Virginian deer in form is the most elegant of all the 

 North American deer. The following description is from 

 "Billing's Naturalist and Geologist": "It has a long taper- 

 ing, pointed head and large, lustrous, bluish-black eyes. The 

 legs are slender but well formed, and in proportion to their 

 size, possessed of prodigious muscular strength, while the 

 body is moderately stout and flexible. The horns are not 

 large, but they are well armed with strong and sharp spikes. 

 They are near their base bent backward, and in the upper 

 half turned forward. They are usually cylindrical, but 

 they are also sometimes met with a good deal palmated, 

 They vary very much in size and shape upon different in- 

 dividuals. The prongs are round, conical, sharp, and di- 

 rected upward. Situated partly on the inside of each horn, 

 near the base, there is a short brow antler on most of the 

 specimens. A large pair of horns weigh about six pounds, 

 but there are few over four or five pounds in w r eight. 



"The color of this animal varies with the season ; in the 

 autumn and winter it is bluish grey, in the spring reddish, 

 becoming bluish in the fall. Beneath the chin, throat, belly, 

 inner side of legs and under side of tail white. The fawns 

 are at first red and spotted with white along the sides. In 

 the autumn of the first season they lose the white spots, and 

 thereafter are the color of the old ones. The hair is flat- 

 tened and angular, that upon the under side of the tail long 

 and white. 



"The average length of this species is from the nose to the 

 root of the tail five feet four inches; length of tail without 

 the hairs, six or seven inches; with the hairs a little more 

 than one foot. The females bring forth in May or June, 

 one, or two, rarely three at a birth." 



Occasionally specimens of this deer are found of a pure 

 white color, with the pink-colored eyes, denoting an albino. 

 I have seen two or three marked with irregular patches of 

 white on various parts of the body. On one occasion a few- 

 years ago, at Hemlock Lake, in the Province of Quebec, I 

 shot a tine buck, in the skin of which the white hairs pre- 

 dominated so much, that the animal had quite a white ap- 

 pearance. A large doe was killed by another of the party 

 about an hour afterwards with precisely the same peculiarity 

 of appearance. Afew years ago Mr. Neil Morrison of this city, 

 had a magnificent white buck, carrying a fine pair of horns. As 

 ■dlusi's natura in the animal creation of extraordinary ele- 

 gance and beauty this lovely specimen was unrivalled. The 

 pure and uniform whiteness of the skin of this fine buck 

 was almost beyond belief. This rare and valuable specimen 

 was caught in deep snow when about three years old, about 

 thirty miles up the Gatineau Biver. It afterwards came into 

 the possession of the Hon. B. W. Scott, who kept it with a 

 number of others in a park, where it ultimately died. If a 

 deer be killed in the water during the period of the red coat, 

 say from June until the middle of August, the carcass will 

 sink to the bottom. At all other seasons the dead body will 

 float. From recent accounts given by sportsmen in Forest 

 and Stream — and intelligent sportsmen are frequently very 

 reliable naturalists — the largest male animal of the Virginian 

 species has been found to weigh something over three hun- 

 dred pounds gross weight, while it is stated by Mr. Cyrus 

 Butler, of Anna, Bl., that "the Virginia deer of the Pacific 

 States are smaller than those of the same latitude in the 

 Central and Eastern States; and I do not think that the deer 

 of Texas will average more than one-half of the weight of 

 the deer of Wisconsin and Michigan. From all I can learn 

 on the subject, it seems that the Virginia deer of the Western 

 States are smaller than those of the same latitude in the 

 Central and Eastern States, and it is certainly true that the 

 further South we go, the smaller we find the deer." 



A beautifully formed deviation in the Germs virgmianv.s, 

 is called the ' 'spike-horn. " This animal, although identical 

 in color and habits with the branching horned variety, or 

 rather generic type of this species, is rounder and thicker in 

 body, shorter in legs, and has a more elegantly shaped head 

 than the other. The true spike-horned deer has straight, 

 sharp antlers, of from six inches to nine inches in length, 

 setting backward, like the horns of the African oryx, which 

 renders him a formidable and generally victorious antagonist, 

 in the periodical combats which take place between the 

 male knights errant of the deer tribes. Those conflicts are 

 often desperate and protracted. 1 have seen a piece of bush 

 fully a quarter of an acre in size, after a light snow, in No- 

 vember, all tramped over, the soil torn up, and small trees — 

 it was in abrule — uprooted in all directions, as the evidences 

 of one of these battles. 1 was told by a still-hunter on the 

 Madawaska River, who killed 1 70 deer in one season (how is 

 that compared with the mild and less sanguinary dog hunt- 

 ing?) that the same year — 1 think 1879 — he came upon two 

 fine bucks fighting and, getting in within thirty yards, killed 

 them both; rifle, small Ballard. In such 'conflicts the 

 animals frequently get their horns locked beyond the power 

 of extrication, and both die of starvation. I once saw two 

 heads locked so tightly facing each other, that a strong man 

 could not separate them. 



I am indebted to our friend Mr. James Fletcher, the ac- 

 complished botanist of the Field Naturalists' Club, for a 

 copy of the London Field, containing a photograph of the 

 most extraordinary head of abnormally shaped horns which 

 I have ever seen. The same paper contains another photo- 

 graph of two heads locked together, side by side, while 



fighting, in such a manner that nothing but the shedding of 

 the horns could have freed them. When found the deer 

 were alive and in good condition. In both cases the animals 

 were ot the Virginian species. This beautiful deer is found 

 in all parts of the valley of the Ottawa, and between the 

 Ottawa and the St. Lawrence, in such places as the hard- 

 woods and swamps are large enough to shelter them. They 

 roam through the hardwood and hemlock ridges in summer, 

 and make their yards, if possible, in a tamaruc swamp in 

 winter. I have seen, about twenty years ago, a deer yard 

 stretching from Bear Brook away beyond the Castor 

 River, which must have been at least nearly four 

 miles square. This yard was completely intersected 

 by paths branching off in all directions and beaten hard 

 enough to bear a horse. Deer yards are found in the same 

 section of country still ; but, like the red-skinned herds of 

 woodland beauties which then made the wilderness glorious, 

 they have been growing smaller and smaller; and a well- 

 beaten yard often acres in extent within twelve miles of 

 Ottawa, is now no mean representative of the wide trodden 

 haunts of the Virginian deer in the near past. The 

 multiplication of hunters, superinduced by arms of precision 

 and volunteer companies, but above all the lawless assassin 

 who slaughters them, male and female, old and young, upon 

 the crust, during deep snow, have tended, in a measure, 

 legally and illegally to more than decimate the magnificent 

 denizens of the forests surrounding the city of Ottawa. 

 The clearing away for agricultural purposes, and the 

 destruction by bush fires of the forest in many places, 

 has driven the deer back to more distant haunts. The 

 wolf, too, although not more sanguinary in his instincts 

 than the lawless crust-hunter, has done his part in 

 thinning the deer in the valley of the Ottawa. Still, 

 it is almost astonishing to know that there are large 

 numbers of them on both sides of the Ottawa River, 

 and in the forests bordering upon its many large tributaries. - 

 In summer the Yirginian deer delights to hang around 

 clearances for the purpose of feeding on grass, clover, tur- 

 nips and potatoes. In former times many were killed from 

 scaffolds in the nights by watchers in the turnip and potato 

 fields. I have not time, nor do I wish if I had, to give a 

 description of the various modes of deer hunting in fashion 

 among sportsmen. As a sportsman I would scorn to refer 

 in a descriptive manner to fire-hunting or crust-hunting. 

 Of the two legitimate methods, still-hunting and hound- 

 hunting, I prefer the latter, on the runway system, as less 

 destructive and more lively and full of reai sport than the 

 former. To me with the glorious music of the dogs ringing 

 and re-echoing through the woods, there is more sport in 

 striking a buck on "the full jump" with a single bullet, than 

 doing the same thing in any other style. 



THE HORNS OF LEER. 



No hunter to whom I have spoken, nor any book which 

 I have read, has given me a satisfactory account of what 

 becomes of all the cast-off horns of our common deer. I am 

 aware of their being gnawed and eaten up by mice and other 

 rodents; but during the period when the horns are falling, 

 from the first to the sixth or seventh of Jauuary, it is a very 

 rare occurrence even with little, or no snow on the ground, 

 to find the horn of a deer, and much more unusual to find 

 both horns together. Some of the knowing ones say that 

 the deer buries his horns; others say that he drops them in 

 the water; but no proof has been adduced that either con- 

 jecture is correct. Although it is a common thing to find 

 the shed antlers of the wapiti on the prairies, and around 

 the borders of wooded slopes and along the banks of creeks, 

 the whereabouts of the cast-off horns of the Germs mrc/inianus 

 has uot yet been discovered. This is a point in natural his- 

 tory upon which we still want light. It is a strange and 

 mysterious provision in the economy of nature, that the 

 periodical growth of a deer's horns — even the ponderous 

 antlers of the moose or wapiti— should involve only an 

 extraordinary forcing process of little more than four months. 

 Shortly after the dropping of the horns, the new ones begin 

 to appear. The growth is slow until the setting in of the 

 warm spring weather, after which it is exceedingly rapid. < 

 The new horns make their first appearance in a round 

 knobby, pulpy state. About the middle of August they are 

 full grown, when they are covered with a soft, velvety skin, 

 which the animal gets rid of by rubbing them against small 

 trees. About the first of October, sometimes earlier in the 

 season, the velvet has disappeared and the new antlers may 

 be seen in all their hardness and beauty. The animal may 

 be said to be then in his finest condition and at his heaviest 

 weight. A buck of the Germs virginianus is seldom seen on 

 the first day of January with his horns on, and never that I 

 am aware of after the fifth of the same month, it is a well 

 known fact, however, that the moose does not lose his 

 horns until later in the season. I have seen the head of a 

 moose killed in January of the present year with the horns 

 still on, and without any appearance indicating that they 

 were about to fall off. 



Here, I imagine, is the proper place to refer to some 

 of the peculiarities and diversities in the horns of our com- 

 mon deer. It is difficult to account for the abnormal growth 

 so frequently visible in the horns of those animals. Some 

 naturalists seem to think that such irregularities of growth 

 in the horns of deer have been occasioned by injuries 

 received by the horn when in its soft and pulpy state. If 

 such were "the case, would it not be natural to conclude that 

 after the deformed member had been shed, the new horn of 

 the following year would resume its normal shape? This 

 cannot be said to be the case. This head which I now show 

 you, as you may observe, is one «f most singular formation ; 

 and from personal observation I know that the splendid 

 animal that carried this strangely abnormal pair of horns, 

 wore his crown in its present shape year after year. I had 

 a fair open view of this deer the year before he was killed, 

 at or near the spot where he was shot, and I particularly 

 remarked the strange-looking horn growing out of the right 

 side of his head. Here are also two fine heads each with 

 backward lateial prongs of a style which is rarely seen. 

 Both have been taken from old and heavy deer. Abnormal 

 shaped horns are seldom, perhaps never seen, except in deer 

 of great size and age. I have frequently seen very old bucks 

 of the red species with an immeuse long curved beam on 

 each side, and others of similar size with only rudimentary 

 protuberances, indicating, as it were, the places where in 

 the horns of former years the prongs had been accustomed 

 to grow. It is not always the largest buck that can its the 

 largest horns. The largest deer 1 ever saw, and one that I 

 gave the finishing touch to myself, had the most miserable 

 set of attenuated antlers I have ever found on the head of a 

 full-grown deer. On the other hand, one of the heaviest 

 pairs of antlers which have yet come under my notice— I 

 have them at home — were taken from the head ot a deer of 



