SrA. Be Maciod, 
AuG, fy 1884.) 
game in myriads, Two other inyited guests from London, 
and the writer end the list of sportsmen. Then the two 
Se i and a couple of boys to help, besides those 
aving charge of the two ponies that are to carry the game, 
form the rear guard of the party. After winding up the old 
road that leads to the peat bogs near the little trout loch we 
yeach high ground after a while, a rest of a few minutes is 
taken, and far away before us we see the undulating ground, 
with the red-brown patches of heather and the black spots 
where the heather has been burnt to give room to a new 
growth, affording more green ahd tender food for the birds. 
Everywhere we can hear the peculiar ery of the grouse, a 
queer guttural sound, unlike any other cry I have ever heard. 
he dogs are let loose, the line is formed, the ponies behind 
us, and the keepers and helpers between the shooters, to pick 
up the game and work the dogs. Wverything is ready and 
on we march, Wardly a hundred yards have been gone over, 
and after a splendid point, a covey rises, bang, bang, and 
two fluttering birds, the first brace of the season, are down, 
eredited to the unerring aim of the major. On we go, and we 
get in the thick of it; birds rising every moment, and after a 
sharp crack here and there, and everywhere, the retrievers 
and helpers are busy picking up the dead and the wounded. 
Onward still, anda blue hare springs from the bog, a short 
tun, for heis bowled over by the Yankee chokebore, Further 
still, and coveys and packs keep rising, and firing is steady 
all down the line; an old duck flies out of a bit of marsh, 
and she goes to swell the bag. A snipe twisis away, having 
uttered her cry, a bang, a miss, and off she goes rejoicing. 
The shooting goes on steadily, many birds are missed, and 
nany are killed, and from way off, one might have thought 
‘a little battle was raging, Pretty soon more cartridges are 
needed and bags and pockets are filled again from the boxes 
carried by the ponies, 
The slaughter goes on, a fine black-cock rises between 
myself and the major. As the younger one of the two I 
wait, and the cock goes down with a thud; another one 
jumps up, and now my turn has come, and next day his 
curved black and white tail feathers adorn my shooting 
cap. 
We continue our walk, and suddenly, over a sloping hill, 
we see another little loch, a little shepherd’s hut is near and 
an agreeable surprise is in store for us, for we see a carriage 
is there, and the ladies we left in the morning come out to 
greet us; lunch is laid out for us, a few trout have been killed 
in the loch, and they are cooking. ‘The guns were unloaded, 
and we threw ourselves on the soft springy heather, the 
sheep all around us seemed to be gazing at us in astonish- 
ment, and the collie dog belonging to the shepherd wagged 
his tail and made friends with us all. What a luxury is 
such a picnic in the heather, after a good tramp, good shoot- 
ing and a fine time generally; the bag was counted, and the 
birds admired and talked about. One hundred and nine 
brace of grouse, one brown hare, twelve blue hares, a few 
rabbits that were killed below the moor, one duck, two 
black-cock and one snipe lay on the heather, Pipes are 
lighted, the guns are swabbed, and after the gillies and 
helpers have had their lunch, off we start again, for on the 
12th of August they always try for a big score on all the 
moors, for all England and Scotland will look in the papers 
and read the reports of the shooting. 
The birds are plenty again, and we go to work with a vim, 
and soon the shot is whizzing through the air, and the fine 
old brown grouse again are accumulating in the saddle 
baskets. Good shots, bad shots, shots of all kinds. The 
major swears he killed this bird at eighty yards, that other 
one at seventy, and so on; every one is happy; now and then 
the guns get warm, and still we are picking doubles out of 
the packs that whirr away in front of us now and then. 
This was kept up until about six o’clock, when a turn was 
made for home, the guns cracking still all the while, until 
we reached the old peat road again, and the,day’s sport is 
ended to begin again néxt day, and to be kept up until the 
birds are made so wild by the shooting that they have to be 
driven, Next time I write again, I will relate how I went 
ona grouse drive later on, if readers of Formst anp STREAM 
eare to hear about it. 
Well, this fine day had an end, like all good and bad 
things, and on the fourteenth, the Scotsman had among its 
notes something to the effect that, ““At moor, two 
hundyed and five brace, with seventeen hares, one duck, 
three snipe, two black-cock, and seven rabbits were bagged, 
seven guns.” G. V. 5, 
Nuw YorE. 
NOTES FROM TENNESSEE. 
PAP TEE a pleasant sojourn in the metropolis of the new 
world, I have just returned to Memphis. I entered a 
sleeper at Jersey City, and stepped out of the same within a 
few blocks of my lodgings here, after a fifty two hours’ run. 
The run north from here is only forty-six hours, over the 
same route. I spent the time very agreeably in transit, 
reclining on pillows in my sleeper, reading the charming re- 
citals in ForEst AND STREAM of “Kingfisher,” ‘‘Reignolds,” 
and others, not forgetting the ‘‘Flickerings,” with their 
spicy jokes. ‘‘Uncle Lisha’s Shop,” also, comes in for a 
lavge share of commendation. The transition from the train 
of thought inspired by the pages of Formsr AnD STREAM, 
of which you had kindly furnished me with seyeral late 
numbers, to that excited by every glance from the car win- 
dows, to the beautiful scenery along the route, was easy 
enough, i 
Up the Cumberland Valley along the Pennsylvania Rail- 
road, was a continually shifting panorama of beautiful and 
highly cultivated farms, with a range of mountains bound- 
ing the horizon on either side. The mountainous feature 
became more pronounced along the Shenandoah Valley, with 
frequent enticing-looking trout streams. But the climax was 
reached on the Tennessee River, below Chattanoova, where 
the ever-varying forms of forest and stream, amid the rapidly 
evolving and bold mountain scenes, passed betore the eye 
like the insensible transformations of the kaleidoscope, from 
the windows of the flying train. _ 
While in New York I visited some of your parks, particu- 
larly Central Park. It is certainly a beautiful place, and 
doubtless of incalculable value to the citizens of the metropo- 
lis, especially the working people, but such scenes. soon 
iin na i 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
converge, If is a pleasant place to step into from the hotels 
across the street, to read the daily papers and smoke a post- 
prandial cigar. But the principal charm about this little 
park is that if abounds in squirrels. There are several 
dozens, perhaps a hundred, chiefly gray equirrels, with a few 
red ones, ‘They are fed every morning by 2 man appointed | 
to do that office by the city authorities, I have never wit- 
nessed the proceeding, but am told that they flock to the 
feeding place at the appoirited time from every quarter to 
draw the day’s rations. They are fed on nuts of some kind, 
Many persons, especially children, carry nuts inte the square 
to feed them for amusement. The small children thought- 
lessly chase them, which makes the little fellows somewhat 
shy, but I can easily coax them to climb up on my knee and 
go into my pockets for the nuts, and even to sit on my 
shoulder and eat them. When the little rogues haye eaten 
enough, it is amusing to see them carry off the surplus nuts 
and hide them in the grass. This they do with great caution, 
frequently rising up on their haunches to see if any other 
squirrel is watching his maneuver, in which case a new hid- 
ing place is sought. Why cannot the parks of New York be 
peopled with these frisky and attractive little denizens of the 
woods? Their presence would add greatly to the attractive- 
ness of such places. 
IT remember that at one time durin @ the war, in the South- 
ern army, there was a rage among the soldiers for catching 
young squirrels. As soon asa brigade bivouacked after a 
hard day’s march through the bills of Georgia, and mayhap 
after a brush with the Federals, all bands set forth with 
clubs and axes, to capture squirrels. I have seen a brigade 
marching, with dozens of squirrels skipping about over the 
soldiers, or sitting on cap or shoulder. 1 think it would not 
be a difficult matter to stock the parks of New York with 
squirrels from our Southern woods. Here there are boxes 
nailed up in the branches of the trees to afford them stelter, 
which they tale to very readily. 
Fishing has been nnusually fine in the lakes and bayous 
of the Mississippi and Arkansas bottoms this season, The 
spring floods of the Mississippi River amply replenished the 
stock of fish in these waters. Our most valuable varieties 
are the white perch, black and striped bass, all of which are 
very abundant, I heard of one party, consisting of four 
Memphis gentlemen, who captured 120 pounds in one day 
in Beaver Dam, a lake forty miles-by rail, below Memphis. 
The completion of the Mississippi Valley Railroad, from 
New Orleans to Memphis, which will be accomplished 
within a month or six weeks, will give easy access to a vast 
area of the best hunting and fishing grounds in the South- 
CoAHoMa. 
Mempuis, Tenn., July 27, 
[There arenow quite a number of gray squirrels in the 
Central Park. They haye at times been so numerous there 
that they did great damage by destroying some of the shrub- 
ery. Some months ago the park officials made a vigorous 
war on the little fellows and reduced their number. | 
PODGERS CRUISES ALONGSHORE. 
E read in the Forms? AnD STREAM of cruises in yachts, 
canoes and all sorts of things pertaining to matters 
nautical, but seldom if ever of yachtsmen’s cruises ashore, 
A bold departure from rigid rules may serve as a change, 
and now you shall have the experience of a ‘Corinthian’ 
ashore by way-of variety, 
You may remember that last Thursday and Wriday it was 
sultry, hot and uncomfortable in the city; thermometer at 
94; result, along toward the latter end of the day (to be nau- 
tical, about two bells) one of the new Broadway cab com- 
pany's yellow yachts night have been seen heading north- 
west for the good steamer City of Worcester, at which port 
the yacht arrived anc proceeded to discharge a gentleman in 
a straw hat, asmall leather trunk anda bundle of fishing 
rods. The cab itself was then discharsed, and after a con- 
ference with the ‘‘gentlemanly purser,” exchanging $2.75 in 
ereenbacks for a brass keey (a good deal for a key), the gen- 
tleman ascended to the upper saloon, consigned his traps to 
his room, walked out on the forward deck, and mopped bis 
noble brow with a sense of relief as the gentle zephyrs 
fanned it, 
This semi-aquatic, semi-terrestrial cruise had no special 
purpose or object except to get away from the city and do a 
little fishing—it might be said a good deal of fishing if pos- 
sible. And yet there was another reason—a friend wants to 
buy a small yacht, large enough to be comfortable for two 
or three Corinthians. Wehad chased those ignus fatuis 
brokers’ advertisements and spent time and money in the 
pursuit, until we were sick and disgusted. They were a 
delusion and asnare. Yachts described as fast, sound and 
well fitted out were mostly rotten old hulks, worn out and 
worthless, and so slow they could not get out of their own 
way. And such prices! Whew! Fifteen hundred and two 
thousand for boats that neyer cost it new, The folly of 
people wanting to sell boats in asking such prices is appar- 
ent from the fact that nobody buys them, There are two 
species of property that depreciate rapidly—horses and 
yachts. You can seldom sell out at cost. When you want 
to buy either, especially yachts, everybody wants them; 
can’t find them—at the price you will pay. When you want 
to sell, a sudden apathy falls on the market; nobody wants 
them—the illustration of the difference between tweedle dum 
and tweedle dee. Well, my friend commissioned me to look 
up a yacht in my cruise, and that was why I determined to 
take it coastwise. 
The steamer City of Worcester is a magnificent boat, splen- 
did in appointments, and her rooms are elegant; heds unex- 
ceptionable and invite early retiring, with the certainty of a 
good night’s rest, The officers are obliging and polite; but 
the charges for meals are exorbitant and the cooking bad. 
No worse than the other Sound boats perhaps, for they are 
all bad—not much variety in their badness. One sighs for 
the good old days, when you could get a good fadle d’hite 
meal for a dollar, before the advent of the fashionable @ la 
carté or European style, which is simply robbery. 
A gentleman of the colored persuasion tapping at my door 
at 7 o’clock the next morning for my ticket was the first 
intimation that we were at the wharf in New London, and 
the banging of that Chinese abomination, a gong, soon after, 
was a hint to get ashore, I would have gladly paid the 
hotel price to have beea allowed to stay aboard all day, but 
that was against rules, so I bundled ashore and took up my 
quarters at a hotel, and after breakfast sauntered down to 
that most attractive of all places to a yachtsman, the 
wharves, to see what was to be seen in the way of boats. 
Yachts were few and scarce; afew catboats completed the 
list. 
Seeing two or three small steamboats at the wharf puffing 
and blowing, apparently going somewhere, I got aboard, 
23 
caring very little where Iwent. For the small sum of ten 
cents I was treated to around trip down the harbor to the 
Edgecomb House, Pequot, Osprey Beach and back. It was 
a good deal of sail for ten cents, so I took another one, and 
saw at anchor in front of the Pequot several yachts. 
In looking over a local newspaper after a midday dinner, 
I saw a yacht adyertised, and on inquiry learned she was at 
anchor off the Pequot, so treated myself to another ten- 
cen voyage. I arrived at the Pequot wharf just as it began 
‘0 rain, 
Tt is said no one dare venture within the aristocratic 
portals of the Pequot without exhibiting credentials and a 
pedigree that won’t run you into soap-making or shoe-making' 
a generation or two back. Not being particularly we 
dressed, it occurred to me that I might assume the hot- 
potato-in-your-mouth accent of a British tourist, and inquire 
about rooms and get temporary shelter. I had fortunately 
broken my eye glasses, and had but half a pair. Sticking 
the remaining glass in my eye, and assuming the tourist 
slouch, I made my inquiry forrooms. The gentlemanly 
“clerk” was all politeness and condescension, and I got a 
good hour’s storage out of that dodge. 
But still the storm did not abate, and I returned to town 
and the dreary office of mine hotel and looked out the win- 
dow at the down-pouring rain, until the brilliant idea struck 
me that I could while away my time by writing up my trip 
for the Forrst anp Srream, and that is how you are in- 
debted (?) for these notes. Thanks to an easterly storm and 
a dull, rainy Sunday, say you? You don’t say it? Well, 
never mind, we will play that you do. ‘Some other people 
will experience the unfortunate result of a dull evening, also 
as I wrote sundry and numerous letters, and inquired of 
every dropper in about the yacht I saw advertised. I got a 
deal of information about her. One said she was a good 
one but didn’t know her dimensions. Others did; and she 
appeared to have elastic properties, ag she ran all the way 
from thirty to fifty feet. Commissioning every fellow to 
tell the owner to call around, I smoked my night-cap cigar 
and retired, 
When | came down to breakfast the next morning I found 
the owner of the yacht awaiting me, from whom I obtained 
the desired information, and posted a letter to my friend, 
the first blood, 1 might say, on the trip. With a feeling of 
satisfaction I betook myself down aboard the Block Island 
boat, where at the present moment I am to be found by any- 
hody owing me anything; and hope I won’t be by anybody I 
owe, But as this first chapter is quite long enongh, we will 
cut the log off here, turn over a new leaf, and date the next 
Block Island. PopGERS. 
Brock Isuanp Boat, Newport, July 28. 
EL CAZADOR’S FIRST BEAR. 
Eee nite’s wood’s noises ar mitey suthin an sleepy-makin 
to them whats used toem an keers to sleep out in the 
free breathin fresh air oy the mountains. Even the howlin 
songs oy the coyotes is not scurse oy musik an I Juv to listen 
to em amusin ov themselves with the Jack Rabbits. The 
sound ov Rocks rolin down the mountain is also sugestiv 
ov wild anemals to be bunted an highly gratifien. What I 
am doen this pen writin for, Mr Editur, is just about this, 
last nite me an Tom wus settin on a log smokin and torkin, 
an I wus sayin ‘‘what a heap ov nice redin thur wus in yo 
paper’ an Tom ses to me ses he ‘‘ole man yu has so much 
fun at this yer newspaper pik nik why doz yu not kontrib- 
ute yo sheer oy the provishuns” which the saim I am now 
proceedin to do by tellin yu the storis ov too bares my oun 
first bare an Toms first also. 
Way bak in erly dais befor the Rtikles on ‘‘Choice of 
Hunting Rifles” in Forest AnD STREAM was wrilen wen 
thar wus but one good huntin rifle to sum thousans oy good 
huntin men, I tuk down my Hawkins 14 pownds, 32 to the 
pownd, all the poudr yu wanted, an a gude purctshun cap 
to the lode, an shated out for a bare. J] kneeded a bare 
badly, ol the uthur fellers had killed um sevral apeece (roun 
the kamfire at leest), an they korld me a deer hunter an sade 
“Tn the fall yu kan sel dricd meat an bi enuf pison to kill 
won.” Isune struk a fresh trak an f it did not seem large 
at first it groed considerable while I was follerin it, for sum 
distans it kep down in the kanyon an then turned up a@idge 
whar tharis sum roks, whar 1 got stung by 2 bes it haven 
eet the bee kave young bes hony kombanall. Wen I got 
oven bein stang [ follered along an the bresh got thiker an 
thiker as the traks got fresher. Sune I perseeved the bare 
lied on the groun asleep an about a milyun flis flien aroun 
it an eten hony on its hed an eers when I fust seen it it wur 
not larger than a large horse but when I tried to hole my 
rifle on it to shute it it wur more large than a hows then ina 
littul wile I kud noi tel whar the hiil left off an the bare be- 
gan. Then I saw it was very poor an very happy at bein 
ful oy hony an [ kaim away an did not disturb it eny moar, 
This was the first bare | ever saw an it was mine becoz I 
diskovered 1t altho I did not okupi it. 
(Tom ses he be doggoned if he will let me tel his bare 
story after this, but 1 will do it nex time sure), sono moar 
at present from your fren En CAzApor. 
Los ANGELES, California. 
A QUAIL INCIDENT. 
Hiditor Forest and Stream: 
A little incident which occurred a day or two since gave 
me much pleasure at the time, showing, as it did, that my 
lessons and instructions had not been entirely thrown away. 
I have a most promising young setter (now thirteen months 
old) which I am trying to train. A day or two ago he was 
noticed coming across the yard from the fields with some- 
thing in his mouth, which he carefully deposited on the 
ground, then backed a few feet and came to a dead stand. 
Upon going up we found an old cock quail sitting there, un- 
hurt, and apparently incapable of fear, as he allowed me to 
take him up and carefully examine him without attempting 
to escape. Finding that the bird was perfectly sound and 
unhurt, I took it out to the orchard and, tossing it up, it few 
off as strong and as fast as one everscesa bird fly, The dog 
had probably brought the bird a mile or more, as the quail 
grounds are fully that distance, and had not bruised it in the 
Teast nor rumpled a feather. The bird must haye been sit- 
ting, and Ponto probably found him there, capturing him 
before he could make his escape. The seeming absence of 
fear must have been caused by numbness from being in the 
dog’s mouth so long, though it had perfect _use of its wings 
when tossed in the air. I am fully satisfied now that my 
dog bas a perfect mouth and worth any trouble I may take 
to make a good retriever of him, A. F, R. 
BELVIDERE, N. C., Aug, 1. 
