June U, 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



389 



sage of the act. aud shall use every means iu my power to 

 get the approval of members before they assemble. 



Our game law is now in operation, or at least it is the 

 close season; but unfortuuatelv little attention is paid to it 

 in many of the parishes. Neither grand juries nor judges 

 will cause offenders to be indicted, because they themselves 

 are guilty of breaking the law. It can only be made effect- 

 ive by the most strenuous exertions of all the gun clubs to 

 denounce those infringing the law, and securing the hearty 

 good will of all true hunters to have offenders indicted. A 

 few convictions in each parish would go far to bring about 

 this result. Geo. D. Alexander. 



Minhen, La., May 24. 



A WOODCOCK'S DEVOTION. 



T7NABLE to resist the subtle influence of the balmy south 

 U wind of yesterday, redolent with cherry blossoms and 

 forerunner of many such sweet days to come, I was strolling 

 along one of the less frequented roads in the immediate 

 vicinity of the village. My lour-footed companion— a satiu- 

 skiuued pointer, associate 6f many a happy day, with ruling 

 passion strong, explored every copse and thicket, regardless 

 he of a scratched body and a bleeding tail, could he but gain 

 one whiff of that iutoxicating odor, far dearer to him than all 

 the "Sabean odors from the spicy shore of Arabie the blest." 

 After an absence somewhat more protracted than usual, a 

 casual search iu the direction I had last seen him revealed 

 him pointing as 1 expected. The character of the ground, a 

 rough hillock covered with tangled cat briers and white 

 birches and contiguous to a deep alder swamp, left little doubt 

 us to the nature of the game, while the glaring eyes, the 

 quivering nostrils, and the rigid stern left equally little doubt 

 as to the few feet or perhaps inches that separated the 

 educated animal from his natural prey. 



While admiring the beautiful picture and hesitating' to 

 interfere, a very large hen bird flopped heavily up, clearing 

 the brier with difficulty, only to drop with a sounding thud 

 a yard or two iu advance. Almost at the same second the 

 smaller but more vigorous cock bird with the familiar ring- 

 ing whistle sprang twenty feet into the air and away oyer 

 the tops of the budding birches, across the brook, skirting 

 a wide meadow, nor pausing nor faultering until with a sud- 

 den dart and a turn he wheeled sharply into a copse of alders 

 and swamp maples, quite a different species of bird appar- 

 ently from his fluttering mate. The latter, naturally shy 

 and retiring bird, appeared to have lost all fear of man or 

 beast in her anxiety for her little family's welfare, each one 

 of whom had doubtless sought shelter at once under some 

 protecting dead leaf at the very first indication of danger. 

 So thoroughly indeed were the little youngsters stowed away 

 that although the rude nest containing the four brokeu shells 

 was in plain sight, no trace of them did a rather cartful 

 search reveal. And now began a series of amusing antics 

 on the part of that devoted parent that must be seeu to be 

 appreciated. Around and around the staunch dog she 

 ambled and waddled, leathers distorted, and quacking for 

 all the world like a dusky duck in the gloaming of the 

 autumn evening as he fearlessly prepares to alight on his 

 favorite feeding ground. 



After several minutes thus consumed in completing the 

 circles, of which the sorely tempted canine was the interest- 

 ing center, finding all her wiles fail to move him, other 

 than an agonizing twist of his head upon its axis, she sudden- 

 ly changed tactics, and with ruffled plumage and open bill 

 boldly cnarged the intruder, uutil but a few inches at most 

 separated her from the jaws which there is some reason to 

 believe may be her future tomb. Patience was evidently 

 ceasing to be a virtue on the poor brute's part, and fearing 

 dire results to that little family of innocents in case of a 

 sudden half orphanage, I asserted my share iu the tragedy 

 hy stepping slightly in advance. As the delighted mother 

 led me step by step away from danger, it was with a peculiar 

 satisfaction Ialmost fancied I could see in her big expressive 

 eyes the relief it furnished her. Over the hill, back to the 

 road and a hundred yards down the same she gently drew 

 us, and when with an utterly exhausted flap she appeared to 

 alight for the last time, I was not less. surprised than pleased 

 to catch a glimpse of her, completely restored as by a miracle, 

 whirling over the dense cedars and tall timber on a hilltop 

 until she reappeared hy a long circuit close to the original 

 spot where I first surprised her. 



Retracing my steps, there she was sure enough, going 

 through the same old game as before. Calling off the dis- 

 gusted dog with much difficulty, I left her there and con- 

 tinued my walk — he full of regrets, doubtless at what he 

 regarded as an exceedingly unsatisfactory termination to so 

 much trouble, and his master with "murder most foul and 

 most unnatural" in his heart to marvel at the mysterious 

 working of mau's heart, which, while moved to pity and 

 admiration at a mother's love, can at the selfsame moment 

 resolve on the subsequent complete annihilation of not only 

 that mother, but "all her pretty chickens too at one fell 

 swoop." Verily, how all-consuming must be that passion 

 for the chase, which warps our sympathies, and which 

 knows no right but the law of might. W. 



Englewood, N. J., May 12. 



SOME REMARKABLE SHOTS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Returning from a de^r nunt with a deer upon my shoulder 

 which I had canied for some miles, I stood my gun, a large 

 bore muzzleloader, against the side of the house on a back 

 porch. I then proceeded to dress the game, and after doing 

 so returned to get the gun and put it away. I found it had 

 been removed, and upon inquiring of the cook — a Chinaman 

 — was informed that it was in the "store loom." I proceeded 

 to the store room and found it standing in a corner behind a 

 sugar barrel. When I undertook to lift it out it went off. It 

 was loaded for deer at long range and it startled me. It 

 startled me headlong over a sack of potatoes, and convinced 

 me for a time that I was killed. After a while I put my 

 hands to my head — or to the place where I wear my head — 

 to see if there was any of it left of consequence. I was sur- 

 prised to find that it was, as near as I could judge, all there; 

 further investigation discovered a long red stripe on my 

 cheek, a face powder burnt and a round hole through my 

 hat brim. There was also an ample hole in the ceiling of 

 the store room, one in the roof, and, no doubt, a hole far 

 into the sky overhead. 



Again, I was out with a Sharps carbine. It was a kind of 

 a cannon. It was a good gun to shoot, only it shocked; 

 that is to say, jarred somewhat, owing to the amount of 

 powder and lead the cartridge contained. Well, 1 came to a 

 steep bank. Let the gun, stock down, into some wild grape- 

 vines until I could climb down myself. I got down, and as 

 I lifted the gun out there was a big blue flash and an awfiu 

 explosion. This time I thought I was reduced to fragments 



and splattered all around like the boy of "Burning Deck 

 notoriety. When the smoke and consternation cleared away 

 T proceeded to compile a list of the killed and wounded. I 

 finally found myself— I was all light, only partially deaf. 

 Gun was all right, Dog was rushing around trying to tiud 

 scent of the game which he presumed I had fired at. The 

 bullet had gone. 



My last remarkable shot was more serious. Was on horse- 

 hack, Was riding a favorite horse up a steep mountain trail 

 to a deer lick. A companion was riding twenty yards or so 

 in advance. We both had Winchester rifles. Were expect- 

 ing to jump deer every minute, and guns both loaded, never 

 cocked. Came to two saplings between which the horse 

 was laboriously climbing on the rocky trail. 1 held the 

 muzzle of my gun down out of line of my companion ahead. 

 Suddenly a 'rifle cracked, my horse reared, sprang sidewise 

 from under me, rolled down the mountain a hundred feet 

 and lay quivering iu death. Fortunately for me I fell in the 

 trail. I thought it was my companion's gun, until I ex- 

 amined and found it to have been my own discharged. My 

 boise's neck was broken, the bullet ranging into his head, 

 killing him instantly. 



Now, perhaps these are not the kind of remarkable shots 

 which are preferred for your columns, but they are truthful 

 accounts, and may serve to show how easily accidents occur, 

 how unexpectedly. I have spent much time in hunting and 

 have handled guns always with great care, Esau. 



Shasta. Cat. 



Meacitam Lake— Meacham Lake, 1ST. Y., May 26.— As 

 the season advances we begin to note the game signs. louee 

 feared that the long, hard winter would kill off the partridges, 

 but on all sides we hear the drumming of the cocks, and the 

 guides and guests of the house speak of seeing many on the 

 roads and about the woods. Everything indicates frhat_ as 

 many as usual have gotten through the winter. The spring 

 so far has been very warm, which is favorable for nesting. 

 Of deer signs we see more than usual. Billy, one of our 

 best and oldest hunters, says he has seen more signs of deer 

 this spring than in any spring for ten years. Thirteen deer 

 had crossed the road last Sunday in the five miles between 

 this place and the first house toward Malone; and in a walk 

 of six miles, in the direction of Brighton, one of the guides 

 saw three deer, and said he saw many tracks. They are 

 great wanderers in early spring. From February to April 

 they had very hard picking, as there was a crust on the deep 

 snow. They look thin and rough, but as vegetation starts 

 up they will improve in flesh. They are working around 

 and in the water. Several have been seen in the lake. — A. 

 R Fuller. 



New Orleans, June 2, 1885.— In a letter in your last 

 issue there are some statements I would like to correct. The 

 hunting and fishing around New Orleans in the right season, 

 that is for hunting from September to February, is good. 

 You can get deer, turkeys, ducks, quail and snipe from 

 fifteen to fifty miles of New Orleans, There are numerous 

 hunting and* fishing clubs around here. The fishing about 

 this time of the year is excellent for trout or black bass and 

 perch in any fresh water stream, and in the lakes you can 

 get catfish, croakers, lake or speckled trout, red fish, red 

 snappers, sheepshead, flounders, Spanish mackerel and others. 

 I would like you to tell me why you give no accounts in 

 your interesting paper about the rowing club races? — R. R. 

 [The rowing races are outside the scope of the Forest and 

 Stream.] " 



The Chinese Pigeon Whistle. — I was wandering about 

 the streets of Peking one day with my boy Chang, when I 

 heard music in the air, and looking up asked Chang, "What 

 is that'?" He replied, "That am a pigeon whistle." He 

 darted into a store near by, and bought me about a dozen 

 bamboo sticks fashioned iuto whistles. Tfiey tie Ihem be- 

 tween the tail feathers of pigeons, and as they sail through 

 the air all kinds of music resounds. It might add to the 

 nuisance of the domestic pigeon if American boys would 

 adopt the Chinese pigeon whistle and make "music in the 

 air." It is about Whitsuntide now, and whistles are in vogue. 

 — C. D. P. (Nogales, Ariz.). 



Those Thirty Deer. — Appleton, Wis., June 2.— How 

 about the man who wrote an article from some Pennsylvania 

 town about the thirty odd deer he killed all alone in the 

 Upper Peninsula of Michigan last season ? What did he do 

 with them? The weather was very mild at that time and 

 the laws about shipping venison out of the State are said to 

 be pretty rigidly enforced. Did any of his venison spoil? 

 There are not very many men about here that kill even half 

 as many deer in one season. Some people are satisfied with 

 five or less. If a man really shot thirty deer in a couple of 

 weeks' time, it don't seem to me to be a feat to boast of. Is 

 it?— F. U. R. 



Philadelphia, June 6. — The bay buds have left for the 

 north. The robin snipe turned last of all. Several parties 

 returning from the Cape May Court House region, the mid- 

 dle of the week, with poor showing, and charge their ill luck 

 to the mosquitoes, which, they say, drove them off the 

 meadows. If birds had flown well, and too great a space of 

 time had not existed between shots, mosquitoes might have 

 been put up with, but when it became no shots and more 

 mosquitoes, it was more than human nature could stand. — 

 Homo. 



Lake Gogebic— Appleton, Wis., June 2. — I was told by 

 an employee of the hotel at Lake Gogebic that killing deer 

 in August with jacklight was one of the amusements. The 

 L. S R. R. Company post notices at all stations declaring 

 their intention of prosecuting violations of the game laws, 

 presumably if the poachers aforesaid don't put up at the 

 railroad hotel.— Fur 



Catskill Peaks.— The Albany Argils says that the follow- 

 ing are the highest, peaks of the Catskill range, and the near- 

 est village or habitable valley in their vicinity: Slide Moun- 

 tain, from J. W. Dutcher's Big Indian, Ulster county, 4,230 

 feet; Hunter Mountain, Hunter Village, Greene county, 4,053 

 feet; Black Dome Mountain, Hensonville, Greene county, 

 4,004 feet; Thomas Cole Mountain, Greene county, 3,975 feet; 

 Black Head, Cairo, Greene county, 3,965 feet; Mount Cornell, 

 Woodland Valley, near Phoenicia, Ulster county, 3,920 teet ; 

 Big West Kill Mountain, West Kill, Greene county, 3,900 feet; 

 Vly Mountain, Lexington, Greene county, 3,88Sfeet; Graham 

 Mountain, Dry Brook, Ulster county, 3,886 feet; Peakamoose 

 Mountain, Watson Hollow, Shokau" Ulster county, 3,875 feet; 

 Table Mountain, Watson Hollow, Shokan, Ulster county, 3.875 

 feet; Plateau Mountain, Tannersville, Greenecountv, 3,855 feet; 

 The Wittemberg Mountain. Woodland Valley, Ulster county, 

 3,884 feet; Sugar Loaf or Mink Mountain, Tannersvilie, Greene 

 county, 3,807 feet; Big Indian, from Big Indian, Ulster county, 

 3,800 feet; KaaterskiU HigU Peak, Haines's Palls, Greene 

 county, 3,800 feet; Panther Mountain, Big Indian, Ulster 

 county, 3,800 feet. 



\m mxi Jjffrir fishing. 



CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS^ 



OARP LAKE, SnCHIGAN.— It. 



BACK in the coach I found Ben and the conductor ab- 

 sorbed in watching the morning- slicking up process of 

 nine young Norwegians by their buxom-lookins: mother. 

 They "were" having "their flaxen locks straightened out by 

 turns, and the comb in the deft hands of the mother paid no 

 attention to kinks, knots and quirls, notwithstanding an oc 

 casional vociferous protest from the tow-headed victim. 

 They were an interesting family, graduated in size from a 

 wee toddler up to a boy of 11 or 12 years old, and all looked 

 as healthy as a brood of young ducks on the bosom of their 

 favorite pond. The conductor told us that the woman had 

 come all the from Norway with no companions but her 

 children and was going to join her husband somewhere above 

 Traverse City, where he had fixed up a nest for his wife and 

 little ones and had sent for them to come to him. "The 

 faith and pluck o' woman is past comprehendin'," said Ben, 

 as he moved forward and took a seat on the coal box to 

 muse and smoke. In the hurry and bustle of looking after 

 our traps at Traverse City we lost sight of them but trust 

 the mother found the nest comfortable and large enough for 

 her numerous brood, and that years of quiet and content are 

 in store for them iu their new home in the strange land. 



We left Traverse City at 7 A. M., taking passage on the 

 steamer Lou. A. Cummings, Capt. George Robertson. The 

 Cummings was bound for Frankfort, and the captain con- 

 sented to land us at Sutton's. The bay was just luftied with 

 a gentle breeze, the morning as glorious as ever a summer 

 morning could be, and everybody was delighted with the 

 lovely scenery along the shore, the swift little steamer and 

 Capt. Robertson. A complimentary vote was afterward 

 taken ou the genial captain, and if his weather eye ever rests 

 on this he will understand it is a gratuitous "blow off," for 

 we paid our fare. 



At Sutton's Bay we were several hours ahead of time, so 

 Ben and I decided to drive over to Provemont, four miles, 

 and send the teams hack after the rest of the party, while we 

 huuted up the camp and fixed up a nest for the girls. In 

 fiteen minutes we were sailing out of town in a stifling cloud 

 of dust and line sand, that managed to -keep even pace with 

 us till we turned into the road leading over the hills to 

 Provemont and Leland. The road led us over a gentle rise 

 and into a little gem of a valley, and further on into a deep, 

 dark, hardwood forest filled with sombre shadows with here 

 and there a streak of sunlight struggling through the thick 

 foliage with a glint like a thread of gold. Here, quite car- 

 ried away by the beauty of the surroundings, we yelled a 

 good old fashioned yell, much to the astonishment of the 

 driver and the little horses. 



Further down we crossed a little stream a yard or two 

 wide that went laughing noisily through the tangle, and as it 

 looked very "trouty," Ben and I had of course to get out 

 under pretense that our legs were cramped, but really to see 

 if we could catch a glimpse of a flashing fin, and to get a 

 drink of the limpid waters. We were satisfied with the 

 drink without seeing the fin, and climbing back into the 

 wagon, a bend in the road brought us into another little val- 

 ley and in near view to a number of charcoal pits looking 

 like immense white bee hives. Here the Leland Mining 

 Company yearly convert acres of the hard woods into char- 

 coal, to be used in making iron in their great furnaces at Le- 

 land, near the foot of Carp Lake. But we were anxious to 

 get to Provemont, and a word to the horses sent them along 

 at a good pace over the last three quarters of a mile, and we 

 pulled up at the bridge right at the head of the narrows to 

 take a brief view of as pretty a sheet of water stretching 

 away off up to the left of us as ever gladdened heart of 

 angler. Down to the right led the narrows, connecting 

 really the two lakes, although it is all called Carp Lake. 

 Before the dam was built at Leland, this connection was 

 nothing but a little wandering stream, something like the 

 streams connecting the lakes of the Intermediate Chain, but 

 now it is the "Narrows," about three-quarters of a mile long 

 and generally about five to ten rods wide, with a depth of 

 seven to twelve feet in the channel, as near as we could 

 judge in passing through to the lower lake some days after- 

 ward. 



We found Provement to be one of the quietest and sleepiest 

 of little places, a place with rest and dreamy summer languor 

 written all over it in the fervid rays of the July sun, in the 

 shadows of the green woods along the low hill just beyond, 

 in the soft air and blue haze hanging over land and water 

 like a misty veil toning the rough points in the landscape 

 into easy lines, in the drowsy droning of a lazy, easy-going 

 "bumble bee" seeking sweets in the flowers of a Canada 

 thistle growing by the roadside — a place where one tired of 

 the noise and bustle and dust and heat of the city might go 

 and forget there ever was an outside world full of cares and 

 batthngs and bickerings and strife for place and existence. 

 It was a picture the eye loves to linger on, a scene to fill the 

 heart with a feeling pi peace and good will to all men. 



Crossing over the leng wooden bridge spanning the stream 

 (for it is nothing more than a stream), just high enough above 

 the water to let the smokestack of the little tug go clear, we 

 drove up to Couturier's, a few rods from tne end of the 

 bridge, and going in introduced ourselves, much to the sur- 

 prise of that good man, who was not dreaming that we had 

 yet left Traverse City. 



A hasty glance at the surroundings confirmed our good 

 impression of the place. The store, Tiotel and post office all 

 in one, stands out on a wide grassv common a short distance 

 back from the narrows, and is a large, roomy house, clean 

 and comfortable looking in all its appointments. I don't 

 know of a place in all Michigan that 1 would rather go to 

 for a summer's rest and sport with the rod than right here at 

 this quiet little village of Provemont, audi would go straight 

 to ueighbor Couturier and be sure of getting the best in the 

 land. 



We did not waste much time in taking the measure of our 

 neighbor as we wished to find the camp as soon as possible. 

 We only noted that he was a French Canadian, rather over 

 medium stature, and perhaps 48 or 50 years of age, with a 

 rather sharp face. It was a kindly face withal, however, a 

 tride careworn; but old Ben figured it out as "a kind o' 

 Lather complected face that looked a heap like a piece o' 

 dried birch bark." But he was a clever, accommodating 

 gentleman, and we were soon all on friendly terms. 



Young Mossman had located the camp ou the Horton 

 farm, four and a half miles above. The four boats were up 

 at the camp and no other craft was to be had but a big un- 

 wicldly canoe fashioned out of a great pine tree. It was 



