Oct. 23, 1885.1 



FOREST AMU STREAM. 



243 



parsley, carrots and celery ; enough probably to last the school 

 through the year. 



That same afternoon I went again to the school and heard 

 the children sing. They did it wonderfiilly well, and there 

 was to me something pathetic beyond the power of words to 

 express in their singing of one or two patriotic songs. "Why 

 should they sing so enthusiastically for the Red, White and 

 Blue, which has robbed them of their land and of their subsist' 

 ence, and made them paupers, living on its charity and tenants 

 on sufferance of so small a portion of the country that was 

 once all their own. To think of what has been and what is 

 seemed to me inexpressibly sad. Yo. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co. 



THE OLD HEMLOCK BUCK. 



I WAS preparing for my fall deer hunt to Michigan when 

 a voice at the door announced the visit of a son of St. 

 Crispin, who In a very quiet way expressed a desire to 

 accompany me. That 1 was surprised at this request you 

 may be well assured, as Van had cobbled boots and shoes 

 for me many years, and in all these days I had never heard 

 him mention dog, gun nor hunting, even. When the spring 

 flight of pigeons came and every man or boy who could 

 muster a gun was out. Van was pounding away at his last 

 all the saaie. If he indulged in pigeon pot pie at such times 

 it was purchased at the expense of his hard-earned shillings, 

 or the gift of some neighbor. 



It was agieed that Van should be companion on the trip, 

 in case he took care not to fire off his gun at the first moving 

 object in the brush and .shoot a man in place of the expected 

 wilder animal. There was no danger of this, bethought; 

 unless he got lost he could always hunt in the opposite 

 direction. The day of departure (lOth of November) came 

 and the son of Crispin put in his appearance, and not badly 

 for a green one did he look eithei". 



He stood five feet seven and a half inches in his boots, a 

 hundred and fifty pounds in weight, and erect and very 

 supple for one of his calling. His scull cap was of gray cloth 

 with ear tabs tied over the crown, a brown home made waw- 

 mus covered a flannel shirt of like material, with a broad 

 collar turned over ab ; pantaloons to suit, tied close to the 

 ankles; over these a pair of heavy knit stockings, all held in 

 place by a pair of India rubber shoes, to which a pair of 

 canvas leggins were attached, buttoning up to the knees. A 

 thirty-to-the pound double-barrel rifle, with powder horn and 

 bullet pouch that looked as though they had seen "con- 

 tinental days," together with sheath knife and hatchet the 

 worse for wear, completed the outfit. We were rather taken 

 aback by this unexpected and complete rig for the work 

 intended, but Van moved around as though it was his every 

 day costume. 



Nov. 14 found us in camp on Goodwin Creek in Tuscola 

 county, Michigan. This part of the country at that time 

 was almost an undisturbed forest; for only a few clearings 

 at intervals of miles dotted the newly blazed roads. The re- 

 mainder of it was known only to the surveyor, lumberman, 

 hunter and Indian. Tuscola and Sanilac counties abounded 

 with game. Elk, bear and wolves were very abundant, while 

 deer ranged the county in numbers equal to any other forest 

 region. Goodwin Creek, ft tributary of the Cass River, with 

 its varied timber, undergrowth, rolling lands and impene- 

 trable .swamps of black ash and hemlock, made it the best of 

 feeding and shelter grounds for forest animals; and in conse- 

 quence it had long been a favorite hunting range for the few 

 acquainted with its natural advantages. 



The lowlands bordeiin^ on the creek for several miles 

 varied in width from thirty to sixty rods, were covered in 

 part with low growth of hazel, black alder and aspen, alter- 

 nated here and there by small bits of water partially over- 

 grown with flags, buttonball and rose bushes. The high 

 banks on either side of the creek bottom rose abruptly to the 

 height of forty or fifty feet and opened on to rolling lands 

 covered with the heaviest of beech, oak, pine and hemlock 

 timber. Such was the hunting ground of this little river. 

 Even from the imperfect description given the hunter who 

 believes in fair work with the deer can picture here a para- 

 dise. 



The day of our arrival a heavy snow was falling. This 

 cleared off at night, so the morning was bound to see every- 

 thing in our favor. Early at the right time we were off up 

 the creek. At its fork it was decided that Van should take 

 the left branch while I was to hunt the right. If nothing 

 prevented we were to meet before night at the lumber camp 

 on the big dam of the right fork. We had separated at the 

 forks ; before following the creek half a mile I crossed the 

 fresh tracks of two deer. Soon they were so near I could 

 see the snow fall from the bushes as they passed along on a 

 walk. Sure, I must have one of them soon. I will take my 

 time and see how they work. If they continue to head up 

 the creek I will make a turn to head them off. In a short 

 time they struck into a dense thicket, from whence they 

 diverged, left the bank of the stream and struck oft" into the 

 heavy timber. While slowly following and pondering what 

 line to take something strange caught my eye. "Gracious! 

 What's this that's stepped in ahead of me? A man's foot, 

 and no mistaking." Then stooping down to examine i 

 recognized the imprint of a rubber shoe with a spread-eagle 

 mark on the sole. "Van's track, sure. What's he doing on 

 my side of the creek? He must be lost and in his bewilder- 

 ment has stumbled on to my deer." I was suddenly 

 startled from this reverie by the clear crack of a rifle not 

 many rods away. Hurrying up, I'soon ran afoul of the lost 

 one, scurrying around with his knife out and punching two 

 deer that lay kicking on the ground. "Hello! Van, what 

 you doing here on my side, kilUng my deer?" "Oh, I'm 

 the fellow that kills two deer at a shot!" was the only reply. 

 Not another word was exchanged, so we helped clean the 

 deer— a barren doe and picked up fawn— and drag them 

 home. 



After refreshments Van unfolded himself. He said that 

 "after leaving me at the forks he allowed I had got the best 

 of the layout, so he concluded to go well round to my right, 

 hunt beyond me in that direction, and I would never be the 

 wiser for it at night." It was on the way round he came 

 across my game, and followed for a short distance, when he 

 spied them standing in a fallen treetop. He saw but the doe 

 When he fired, and was much surprised to find the other deer 



kicking out its life by her side. The doe was shot through 

 the shoulders, the f.^.wn through the neck just back of the 

 ear. They were standing ten feet apart. 



At noon the sun came out bright enough to blind the wild- 

 est deer running, so we agreed to go to a hemlock swamp 

 half a mile from camp and look up an old "Golden" that 

 was well known to several hunters. He was invariably 

 found in or about the swamp, had been fired at often, and 

 though always wounded he got away. But what was most 

 wonderful of all the many stories regarding this supposed 

 mythical animal, it was gravely said that "he had a third 

 born ffrowiug out of the center of his forehead." 



We had barely passed along t\*nty rods of the border of 

 the swamp, than a deer showed a portion of his body in the 

 dense underbrush not as many feet off. We could follow 

 his route by the snow he shook from the bnish in passing. 

 As he was making directly to the far side on the west, we 

 struck a fast run to head him off as he might emerge from 

 the thicket. We soon struck a lumber road that skirted the 

 swamp on that side, and had not proceeded far before we saw 

 coming the largest deer on record. At fli-st we thought it an 

 elk, but before we had time to think he had passed behind 

 a large fallen pine tree that led to the road we were follow- 

 ing. Van wa,s a few feet in front. As soon as he saw the 

 deer occasionally showing its antlers above the log as it 

 walked slowly along, he motioned his hand behind him, 

 remarked in low voice, "I see the deer," and raised his gun 

 to fire. Now is my time sure, thought I, he will miss, the 

 deer will jump to the road and stop to look into the cause 

 of the commotion, and so give me a clean open shot. Van 

 fired, but the deer did not jump. He fell just where he 

 stood in his tracks. A thirty-to-the pound ball had sevei ed 

 the spine. It was a clean calculated shot. There was 

 eighteen inches of snow on the log, the ball passed through 

 it where it touched the moss. Had the aim been two inches 

 higher my turn would have come next. As it was, I was 

 my third deer out that day, and before 2 P. M. too. The 

 deer was soon hung up and cleaned. We guessed the 

 weight all the way up to 300 pounds, although he was thin 

 even unto starvation. There was not a single ounce of tallow 

 on him, not even about the kidneys. His paunch contained 

 about half a bushel of hemlock twigs and leaves. He was a 

 hoary, scragged, gray-haired old fellow with a spike horn 

 eight inches long in addition to the regular antlers growing 

 nearly from the cmter of the forehead. There wals an old 

 ball wound through the neck; another had glanced along the 

 left shoulder, making a rough skin wound. He was the veri- 

 table "old hemlock buck." We had killed the mythical 

 animal. 



Although the buck was worthless as food, it was decided to 

 take him home as a sight worth showing. So I went in search 

 of a lumber team and Van went to try his hand on deer. It 

 was long after dark before I had the big deer in camp. Van 

 was there already, toasting his toes and frying venison. He 

 merely remarked, as I hove in view, "Doctor^ now as you've 

 got your hand in at hauling, s'pose you follow that lumber 

 road, from where you have brought this deer, about a mile 

 further to the north and you'll find another hanging up in 

 plain sight; and not to be mean, I will go along "and help." 

 "The other" was brought in that night, and well it was so, 

 for before morning it commenced raining with a meaning 

 and kept it up aD the next day, and drizzled the day follow^- 

 ing, froze that night, and so went on day after day for 

 nearly a week, when we so despaired of ever seeing another 

 good hunting day that season, packed up game and traps 

 and left for home. Van gave me the hemlock buck and 

 barren doe. The first weighed 170 pounds dressed; the doe 

 was fat as a squab pigeon, and was considered the best piece 

 of venison I ever brought home. Van never took advantage 

 of his position, though he often told of how he killed two 

 deer at one shot, and I never denied it. My old friend died 

 a few years after this. I have since heard that he was a 

 noted deer hunter in the "parts he came from in Northern 

 New York." 



Judge Caton, in his book on "North American Cervidfe," 

 states that a third antler has only been found in the elk, 

 wapiti {Ve)mii< mmulemu). I send to the museum of Forest 

 AND Stream the antlers of the "old hemlock buck," killed 

 Nov. 15, 1856, near Poowin Creek, Tuscola county', Mich., 

 to be identified as a deer's head with a third prong or antler'. 



Olevelajid, Oliio^ Dr. E. Sterltng. 



DR. E. STERLING. 



'"pHE following notes from the Cleveland Voice give some 

 -1- welcome information about an individual whose signa- 

 ture is very well and pleasantlv known to the readers of 

 Forest and Stream : 



"Elisha Steriing was born in Salisbtury, Conn., Aug. 15 

 1820. Nine months later the family moved to New Haven, 

 where they resided till 1824, and then emigrated to Cleve- 

 land, by the way of the Erie Canal to Buffalo, thence by lake 

 on the steamer Enterprise. The Doctor says they 'found the 

 city a hamlet of five hundred quiet people.' Mr. Sterling, 

 Sr., went to practicing law with the late George Willey's 

 uncle. The only other practitioner at the bar at the time 

 was Governor Wood. 'Lish' was foremost in all boyish 

 athletics, and had more than his share of mishaps— breaking 

 each leg, at different times, and being once pushed into the 

 canal lock (where he was nearly drowned) by a youngster 

 with whom he quarreled over a string of bullpouts. In such 

 sports as swimming, climbing, foot-racing, wrestling, shoot- 

 ing, fishing and archery, he was proficient. At the proper 

 age Elisha began the study of medicine, and in due time was 



graduated an M. D. He was then sent to Paris for a course 

 of study. His favorite book had been, he tells us, the life of 

 'Blue Beard.' 'When it was first propo.sed to send me to the 

 center of learning, over the sea, my first thought was to visit 

 the abode of Gillcs de Retz, on the banks of the Loire. A 

 book found in the National Library, entitled "Voyage Pit- 

 toresque et Romanesque dans I'Aacicnt France," was just 

 what I was after— an immense folio with text and illustra- 

 tions of all the remarkable chateaus of France. Blue Beard's 

 was among the number. The result of it was that with the 

 first vacation of August, 1848, I could have been seen, staff 

 in hand, on a grand chateau hunt. During this and succeed- 

 ing vacations twenty-live hunched miles were traveled over.' 

 An episode of his Pari.s life was an invitation from Kicard to 

 accompany him upon a professional visit to President Louis 

 Napoleon to operate for a stricture of the urethra — a disease 

 the Emperor died of in exile, in 1873. In the fall of 1852 

 Dr. Sterling formtdly established himself in Cleveland as a 

 physician and surgeon. The largest fees he ever received 

 were: operating for the stone, $2,000; and .$1,000 for plastic 

 operation on the face. His smallest fee was half a penny, 

 'taken from Artemus Ward, for carrying him through a 

 genuine case of Maumee fever and ague.' ThR Doctor made 

 the first operation on the Western continent for excision of 

 the hip-joint from gun shot wounds, Aug. 20, 1861. 'The 

 Army Medical and Surgical Record' credits him with the 

 priority. Dr. Blackman, of Cincinnati, claims the honor; 

 but his date is given as ten da3'S later. Dr. Sterfing's patient 

 survived eleven years, while Dr. Blackman's only lived four 

 hours, as we are informed. Dr. Sterling has a letter from 

 Dr. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, accrediting him 

 with being the tirst to make plaster casts of fishes. His 

 enthusiastic love for everything connected with pisciculture 

 is well known. A pleasant "evidence of it is the Castalia 

 trout stream, which now furnishes unbounded pleasure to 

 several fishing clubs. The Kirtland Society of Natural 

 Science was the result of a suggestion by the Doctor. The 

 first meeting for its organization was held in his olfice, Feb. 

 25, 1869, as the record'book will show." 



MY FIRST DEER. 



''INHERE are some things one never forgets. The killing 

 L of his first deer marks an epoch in a'man's life, and if 

 you will listen I shall not be very tedious. I will teU you 

 how I killed mine. 



Late in the year 1853 I had reached the mature age of 

 eleven. With a hereditary fondness for natural history and 

 field sports I was eager to be the possessor of a gun. My 

 gentle mother was a widow and 1 her eldest child," Though 

 born and bred in the far South, where the use of arms is part 

 of a youth's education, she had all a fond mother's anxiety 

 for her children's-safety, and whenever I asked for a gun I 

 was told that I would probably kill myself instantly if such 

 an instrument were put into my hands, and that I must wait 

 until I had reached maturer years before my desire could be 

 gratified. My mother was the owner of a very large and 

 well equipped plantation situated in one of the riparian 

 counties of Mississippi and but a few miles from the great 

 river from which the State takes its name. It was her cus- 

 tom when in the United States— for though she Hved in 

 Louisiana she was much abroad — to pay a visit in the au- 

 tumn of each year to this plantation, upon which her bache- 

 lor brother res'ided as her representative and where he main- 

 tained the most charming of bachelors' establishments, and I 

 was usually taken along. At the rear of the place there was 

 a horseshoe shaped lake (an old cut-off of the river), full of 

 fish, that in the late autumn and winter months was the 

 resort of rajTiads of water fowl. Not very far from the 

 plantation mansion, or "e,Teat house," as the residence of the 

 master was called, the neighboring gentlemen had built a 

 double log cabin, in which there resided a curious character. 



Dennis had served four terms of enlistment in the IT. S. 

 Army, and a former company officer who lived near us after 

 leaving the service had taken the old fellow up and built 

 him the cabin mentioned, fitted it up, and the veteran pen- 

 sioner was passing his last days in great comfort. Like 

 many of his countrj^men, old Dennis (though the most faith- 

 ful of soldiers, and the greatest possible stickler for discipline) 

 had one weakness, viz. : a strong penchant for Kentucky 

 whisky. He had three distinct stages of inebriation. In 

 the first he was very military and conservative, and feared 

 that the introduction of percussion-lock muskets into the 

 service had .sapped the warlike spirit of the nation. In his 

 second he was apt to be didactic; and in the third he was 

 rather fond of alluding to his own personal exploits while in 

 the service. He had been First Sergeant in the Company of 

 the Fourth U. S. Infantrj' while the regiment was in 

 Mexico, and, judging from the conversation he had had 

 with Gens. Taylor and Scott and other officers of high rank, 

 which he used to repeat to two or three of us, the war would 

 never have ended so triumphantly for the American arms 

 but for Dennis's suggestions and' advice. Among this old 

 worthy's belongings was an ancient miisket of the pattern of 

 1813, three-banded, with an enormous flintlock. In the 

 veteran's third stage of raattdlin inebriety he would point to 

 the ancient weapon as it hung on hickory forks above his 

 cabin door, and with apostrophic gesture tell us of the 

 wonderful fatality that attended its use in the various 

 skirmishes and battles "with thim Misikins." 



As a neighboring lad ami I walked slowly homeward after 

 listening to the old sergeant's marvels of slaughter, we used 

 very soberly to wonder that' any Mexicans were left after one 

 of these Homeric encounters. As I listened to these stories 

 and gazed at the wonderful instrument of death one day, a 

 wild thought came into my mind. The tremendous possi- 

 bilities it awakened startled me. I would buy that musket. 

 As I said, the possibiUties dazzled me. To own such a 

 death dealing instrument, one which had accomplished such 

 results — why, it would be too much good fortune for one 

 person to hope for in this world. But the idea grew. I 

 would become the proprietor of the wondrous weapon if 

 money could accomi)]ish it. One day after the old soldier's 

 potations had been of uncommon strength, I delicately 

 broached the momentous question. He looked at me with a 

 glance in which wonder and dignity were blended, and burst 

 into copious tears; but I persevered. Finally he said that if 

 1 could produce the sura of two dollars and a half, why, as 

 a great favor, the musket should be mine. Now, I had two 

 gold dollars, and I knew that in any great emergency my 

 uncle could be relied upon for the other half dollar. To 

 make my story short, I got the needed fifty cents, and with 

 my other dollars in my pocket and a beating heart in my 

 breast, 1 went to old Dennis's cabin to conduct the operation 

 and take possession of the property. He explained the mys- 

 teries of loading and priming, and putting in a new flint, he 

 gave me tfee coveted weapon, I dared not take it home, and 



