306 



[iSov, 13, 188S. 



paring for a bia: gvinnin^ seapon. They say that a very large 

 percentage of the fowl in the hays this'year are young birds. 

 Last season there was but little brant shooting iu this sec- 

 tion, but there is promise that the resident gunners will niaive 

 up for lost time this winter. 



THE ctjurituce: marshes. 



During the very hard noi theast storm in the latter part of 

 October which occurred along the ISlorth Carolina coast, the 

 local gunners "who frequent the marshes whenever they get 

 a chance have been guilty of more or less poaching on the 

 ducliing shores owned and leased by the different shooting 

 clubs. They are at present threatening the frontier owned 

 by the Palmer's Island club, and occasioning no end of 

 trouble to Mr. William 8. Foster, the superintendent, and 

 the under keepers. It has therefore been found necessary to 

 erect look-out houses on the marshes, from which the keep- 

 ers can have a good view of the out'iide shores. One house 

 has been erected on the outer point of Horseshoe Island. 

 Everything is being done to keep the law-breakers at bay, Ibut 

 they are very obstinate in tlieir attacks, and in some instances 

 have resorted to night shooting. 



From the present outlook the shooting at Currituck will 

 be remarkably good this season. There is an abundance of 

 good food. On Oct. 25 there was a good show of ducks in 

 the marshes, and on the 5J8th ult. the geese began to circle 

 into the Sound. The weather has been warm, and on the 

 main land there has been a great deal of sickness. There 

 lias been no frost as yet, the thermometer ranging from 65° 

 to 85'\ The Palmer's Island members <are making many im- 

 provements. They have been erecting a liU'ge kennel house 

 for their retrievers and hunting dogs! The mails run via 

 Snowden's Station as last year, no change having been 

 made in the time. 



CALIFORNIA GAME NOTES. 



ALTHOUGH our shooting season opened on the 1st of 

 October, it has not thus far been a satisfactory one. 

 Contrary to the rule, we have not as yet been favored with 

 a rainstorm— except in the mountains— and all efforts to find 

 quail in abundance in their usual haunts have been xinsiic- 

 cessful. The foothills are scorched and dry, and the water- 

 courses few and far between. Hence the birds appear to 

 have sought the impenetrable chapparal and greasewood 

 thickets further up the mountains, where neither man nor 

 dog can follow thtm. It will take a few good showers of 

 rain and a snapping frost or two to drive them out and do .sn 

 upon the lower hills, where they will be within reach of the 

 sportsman, and where dogs will have a chance to do satis- 

 factory work. However, as we have a good, long open 

 season — from Oct. 1 to March 1 — we can afford to wait u few 

 weeks yet, even till December. 



If anybody thinks that the valley quail of California 

 aifords poor sport for others than the pot hunters, lie is mis- 

 taken. That they can be shot in vast numbers by the 

 "groimd-sluicing" process is true, as I suppose it is of every 

 other kmd of quail; but our valley bird really lies well to the 

 dog when found where the brush or timber is not too dense. 

 Tlie coveys are apt to flush wild at first, but at the first shot 

 they scatter well and hide very ckse. I have known persons 

 to foUuw them for liours and not get a shot, simply by 

 neglecting to blaze away at the first rise. They do say that 

 down in the southern p^n of the State these birds do not lie 

 well, but in tlie central and northern counties Ihey do. .lust 

 now everybody tliat enjoys sport with gun and abg is wish- 

 ing (if not piaying) for rain and a cold snap. Eut, aside 

 from the necessities of the sportsman, more delightful 

 weather than we are now enjoying could not be asked for 

 Lovely as is the California springtime, the autumn is to me 

 even more charming, especially the October and November 

 montbs. Here in Sacramento— and throughout the great 

 valley of the Sacramento- tlie temperature now luns about 

 from 40° in the early morning to 70° in the afternoon. The 

 air is s^oft and hazy, and we have not had a really strong 

 blow since June. It is just the kind of weather that makes 

 a fellow feel as if he wanted to be abroad in the woods and 

 fields, of course with gun and dog. When thus accompanied 

 I have often noticed that one's enthusiasm over the beauties 

 crl' nature lasts much longer than under other conditions, even 

 if it be no moie intense at the outset. 



Those who prefer wildfowl to quail shooting are also rest- 

 ing on their arms, waiting forthe'grtai influx of ducks from 

 the north. A great many ducks are bred annually in the 

 tule region along the Sacramento, and the advance guard of 

 the northern army comes along soon after September 1; 

 but the height of the ducking season does not begin until 

 well along in jSovember. This year the sloughs and small 

 lakes are all <iry as yet, and the ducks have mostly gone to 

 the bays and larger Jakes. A few canvasbacks have been 

 shot recently within a couple of miles of this city, and mal- 

 lards, teal, sprig, redhead and other common varieties have 

 been in market for some time. Geese are quite plentiful 

 alreaoy, and very soon the poultry stands will be filled with 

 all kinds of wild game. The deerslayers fairly steeped them- 

 selves in gore the past summer. The number of deer that 

 were slaughtered since July, within a radius of 75 or 100 

 miles of Sacramento, would foot up into the thousands. The 

 woods are full of white men and Indians who kill the deer 

 for then- hides (contrary to law, of course), and they are 

 helped out by crowds of graceless scamps from the cities and 

 towns, who EO "camping" every summer. These chaps 

 come home and get the newspapers to pulf them for having 

 kjlled from 10 to '60 deer each during a month's raid in tne 

 bids. Of course they sell the hiues, like the other fellows, 

 and throw away the carcasses. It is simply shameful the 

 way our deer are being dustroyed, and I only hope that some 

 of these guerrillas may live long enough to realize what brutal 

 prochvities mastered them m their younger days. 



Owing to the lateness of the season the Pacific Coast Field 

 Trial Club has not yet been able to determine upon what 

 grounds the trial shall be run in December. The probability 

 is, however, that the dogs will be turned loose in Marin 

 county, where a member of the Executive Committee claims 

 to have found some good ground and plenty of birds. The 

 Derby will be light rbis year, as several owners of young 

 dogs declined to risk $3.50 and make their nominations as 

 early as May 1. As it was, there were seventeen entries; 

 but distemper, poison and doses of lead have made sad in- 

 roads upon the puppy ranks. The all-age entries will close 

 Nov. 15, and it is expected that they will foot up from 

 twenty to thirty. The club find it diflicult to secure good 

 judges, but will endeavor to have the best the State affords. 

 Interest in dogs is steadily on the increase, and in a few 

 years California will be able to boast of a large number of 

 blue bloods. There are a great many here already, all of the 

 most noted Eastern sires being represented. 

 Excellent snipe shooting is reported from the marsh lands 



about the inouths of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. 

 In fact, a San Francisco paper stated last week that the local 

 market was glutted with English snipe. I like snipe shooting 

 perhaps better than any other, and must try and pay my 

 respects to the long-billed fellows down that way at the ear- 

 liest opportunity. Cabl. 

 Sacramento, Oct. 27. 



GAME IN THE PINE TREE STATE. 



THE superintendent of the Maine Central Railroad has 

 issued an order to his station agents which will inter- 

 est sportsmen who go to the Pine Tree State to hunt moose, 

 caribou or deer this fall. In substance the order says that, 

 although under the statute a railroad or an express company 

 could legally transport each season one moose, two caribou 

 and three deer, yet, with all the number of trains, stations 

 and agents connected with that line, it would be impossible 

 for agents to know when the Umit had been reached, and the 

 superintendent therefore orders tbat none whatever of such 

 game be transported. This is regarded as a strong move in 

 the right direction by those favorable to game protection, 

 and, since the Maine Central and its branches cover nearly 

 all the avenues of transportation from the State, except by 

 water, it now looks as though but few moose or deer could 

 be got to market from Maine this season. Some of the 

 other transportation companies are likely to adopt the same 

 rule of action. 



The Maine commissioners are working with their usual 

 energy to bring those vacationists who have been down to 

 Maine and shot moose, deer or caribou in close time this 

 year, to justice. They have able detectives at work and dis- 

 closures, unpleasant to those who have been wonderful 

 hunters on the sly, are expected. Mr. Stillwell declares that 

 what surprises him beyond measure is how that even clergy- 

 men from other States can come down into Maine in close 

 season, bribe guides to aid them, and then deliberately break 

 the law of the land, only to gratify a passion for killing. 

 Such wickedness is invariably followed by lying. Guides 

 are corrupted into swearing falsely, by money, and both 

 clergymen and lawyers are instigators of such crime, to save 

 themselves from paying the fines that law fixes upon their 

 overt act. As for schoolmasters, several of them are in- 

 dicted for killing moose or deer in Maine out of season, and 

 they dare not visit that State, for fear of arrest. Truly they 

 must regard the fun as dearly bought. 



These clergymen preach obedience to law and order at 

 home; these lawyers would not be suilty of openly breaking 

 the statutes of their own State, and then subornating wit- 

 nesses to swear falsely about it; but each goes into Maine 

 intending to take game unlawfully. But what is the result 

 when they get found out? In nine cases out of ten they 

 prove to be cowards — "squeal," as the speculators say — 

 when they get nipped. They write to the Maine Game 

 Commissioners asking for clemency. The letters are gen- 

 erally addiessed to Mr. Stillwell, because his name appears 

 first. That gentleman has such letters in his possession by 

 almost a score. The letter frequently confesses the crime; 

 generally promises never to do so again; winds up with ask- 

 ing permission to come into the Slate again. Mr. StillwcH's 

 answer is always the same: "I am not a judge. I did not 

 make the Jaw, but I have .sworn to enforce it, and while the 

 oath of oflice is on me 1 shall do it!" He also closes with 

 assuring the applicants that if they touch Maine soil again 

 they will be arrested. 



Such devotion to a cause where the pay is very small and 

 the curses are many, is saving the moose and deer to Maine, 

 and they are increasing wonderfully. Would the same earn- 

 estness and force were behind the game and fish protective 

 laws of every State in the Union! Hounding deer is efffc- 

 tually wiped" out in Maine, as it is t© be hoped it may be by 

 your aid, good Forest and Stream, in the Adirondacks. 

 A gentleman, for many years a resident in Maine and who 

 is to this day in the habit of traveling over the sparsely 

 settled portions of the State extensively, remarked the other 

 day that ''he never saw anything like it. Ten or fifteen 

 years ago there were no deer. Now they are getting to be 

 very common. They come out into the fields to feed. Their 

 tracks are as common as sheep tracks. Only keep down 

 crust-hunting and keep out hounds, and Maine will yet be as 

 noted for her deer as for her lakes and woods." 



It is with pleasure that I hear that the Province of New 

 Brunswick has made a non-exportation game bird law, al- 

 though I am not yet able to state the form of it or give For- 

 est AND Stream a copy. Spkcul. 



A TEXAS QUAIL SHOOT. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



During the latter part of October, and at the end of a 

 mild Texas norther, a party consisting of Wellmer, PurnelJ 

 and Hanna resolved to go upon a general hunt, and having 

 loaded down two buckboards wich all the paraphernalia of a 

 hunter's outfit, left town, looking like two Y ankee tin peddlers 

 going West to have the country grow up with them. After 

 traveling twenty-five miles northeast of Austin, we arrived 

 at our camping grounds on the head of Willow Creek, where 

 ducks, snipe and quail were said to be abundant. Arriving 

 a little before dusk, we set to work hunting quail for supper 

 and succeeded in bagging a few. We selected our camping 

 grounds a hundred yards from the tank or pond, under some 

 hackberry trees, which made a delightful place to camp, and, 

 with plenty of wood, we soon had a rousing fire and a fine 

 supper, and after telhng a few stereotyped camp stories, re- 

 tired for the night. All was lovely, caJra and serene on this 

 balmy autumnal night, until all at once night was made 

 hideous by the howling of legions of wolves within a short 

 distance from camp. That, with innumerable hoot owls in 

 the trees close by, was something that did not detract from 

 the monotony of camp life. 



Next morning we were up bright and early, and heard the 

 first piping notes of Bob White coming from every quarter, 

 and we anticipated fine sport for the day. At daylight we 

 took our stands at the pond, and a Jittle before sunrise Pur- 

 neJl succeeded in bringing down a couple of canvasbacks 

 out of a large flock that came sailing over, going south. 

 That ended duck shooting for the day. W"e repaired to 

 camp and after breakfast started out for quail. The sur- 

 rounding country consisted mainly of cactus, chapparal, 

 quail and rattlesnakes. One of our party killed a large 

 rattle, which he nearly stepped on; it had ten rattles and a 

 button, which would indicate the gentleman was ten years 

 old. The prickly pear was ,so dense that we could not work 

 a dog, and so we had to rely on still-hunting and trust to the 

 hawks to scare the quail up. Talk about hawks, they were 

 there by tlie thousands, and could be seen in every direction 

 as far as the eye could reach. Some of them would hover 

 over a covey of quail, and would not leave at our approach; 



so we succeeded m killing them. We disposed of some 

 forty hawks during our four dnW outing. As to quail we 

 had as fine .sport as any sportsman could wi.sh, and would 

 have returned with about sixty Inrds if the wenther had not 

 turned out so wai-m. An idea of the numlier of rmail in 

 that vicinity may be drawn from the fact that durino the 

 year 1877 one party of pot-hunters trapped over eleven thou- 

 sand there. But thanks to our Legislature, it undertook the 

 framing of adequate game laws for the protection of tins 

 noble bird, and quail are to-day more plentiful than at any 

 time since the war. 



Our trip home was devoid of any startling incident, save 

 that every team we met took fright at us, and several of 

 them came near running away. I presume we were taken 

 for the advance of a circus. Bob. 

 AusTiK, Texas, October, 1885. 



BoBTON, Mass., Oct. 30.— My score of birds for this season ■ 

 IS four woodcock, one partridge and one black duck, and as • 

 1 am no game butcher and do not hunt for count I took as 

 much enjoyment as on some former trips when I made much 

 larger bags. The first flight of woodcock ai rived here from 

 the 13th to the 16th of October, and seemed to be coming and 

 going a few at a time for a week or ten days. Qutiil are not 

 verj; plenty. Partridge in some places are more plenty. The • 

 section where I have hunted has been good cover for them 

 for years, but this year the flocks have been broken and 

 thinned out by market hunters so they are hard to find. One • 

 market hunter has made a specialty of hunting ducks for the 

 market, starting out before daylight and visiting all the ponds 

 for miles around and doing nothing else during the fall mi- 

 grations, shooting some and frightening away the rest. Such 

 a man is a nuisance in any neighborhood, much more so im 

 a State like this where game is so scarce. Maine, New 

 Hampshire and Connecticut have made laws that forbid the- 

 shipping of game out of their States, which will save a goodi 

 deal of their game but will have a tendency to a greater- 

 slaughter in Massachusetts, Boston being the chief market im 

 New England. It will also have a tendency to make laudt 

 owners post their land to preserve the game. Most of the' 

 woodcock shot in this State are flight birds ; veiy few breed; 

 here compared to former numbers. The largest woodcock It 

 have ever shot and weighed tipped the scales at 11 ounces. — 

 G. L. B. 



Vermont Deer and Panthers.— Highgate,Yt., Oct. 31. 

 — Signs of deer are to be found on nearly all of our moun- 

 tains in the northern portion of the State, though no pan- 

 ther; but we have a worse evil, the sly cruster, who runsi 

 down his venison and keeps his own secrets hid from his 

 neighbors, excepting in the extreme northeastern part of the 

 State, where this work is done more openly. I believe that 

 your correspondent, Ned Norton, could throw some valuable 

 light on this subject. Our people are over-zealous to help 

 exterminate but Jax to assist in the work of protection. — 

 Stanstbad. In the Evangelist Eev. S. W. Powell writes 

 from Wilmington, Vt. : "Ray Pond, about three miles 

 above the village, was stocked witli black bass about nine 

 years ago, and there are said to be seven and eight-pound 

 fish there now. A few begin to get out into the stream. 

 Sawdust has banished the trout. Once in a while deer stray 

 as far south as this from the wild region up north, in whicJi 

 some ten years since a number were turned loose, and have 

 been protected since by stringent legislation. The low bou uty 

 for killing the panther— only $20— does not tempt hunters To 

 undertake the serious labor and peril. One that weighed 180 

 pounds was killed a year or two ago, 1 was toJd, and shown 

 at Brattleboro. How many deer, not to speak of domestic 

 animals, would it take to maintain such a monster for a 

 year?" 



Game Near New York.— One of the best hunting ' 

 grounds near by is reached by the D. L. & W. R. R., which-, 

 takes you direct to Oakland Station (or Cresco) Monroe - 

 county, Pa., some forty mUes non^^est of the Water Gap. . 

 Here pheasants are numerous, ana woodcock, rabbits and a 

 few quail may be found. The country is rather high and ' 



rough 

 week, 



1, however. I spent four days at Cre»co last 

 lulyfor myself what old hunters have Jjcen. 



if years. There is game at Cresco and/ 

 woods abound with partridges. In a two 



.must have started fifty birds, but owing- 



[nderbrush very fcAV could be seen. Wo 

 birds and' several woodcoclc. Seven 

 from Cresco are the Goose Ponds, near which 

 deer maj^he found. Two were started about four miles 

 from Crc'scb last Tuesday, and any hunter who travels the 

 country from Goose Ponds to the Bushkill will be rewarded 

 with venison. Five miles west of Cresco are the Beech 

 woods, which afford a roost for thousands of wild pigeons. 

 Altogether Cresco is a good place to locate for a few days. 

 Hunters who go out there need not buy any game at Wash- 

 ington Market on their return. If they are fairly good 

 shots they can get 'enough in the woods to fiU a goo'd-sized 

 game bag.— T. V. W^ 



To THE Sunk Lands. — The Memphis Appeal, Nov. 3, 

 reports: The little pleasure steamer 0. O., about which 

 the Appeal had an extended notice some time ago-, arrived 

 yesterday afternoon, and is lying at the upper wharf await- 

 ing the arrival of four of the participants in tJie cruise ex- 

 pected by rail froui Louisville tiis afternoon. The C. 0. is 

 owned by Judge Longworth, the distinguished Cincinnatian, 

 and in command of Geo. B. Ellworth. Judge Longworth is 

 accompanied Jiy a party of his friends, among them OnJ. A. 

 Wilson and Dr. HenshaU, both well known to piscatorial 

 fame. The latter gentleman is keeping the boat's log, which 

 will be an interesting page in marine literature hereafter. 

 The C. O. leaves this afternoon for the mouth of St. Francis 

 River, and will ascend that stream Deo voknte and a suf- 

 ficiency of water, to the happy hunting grounds of the Sunk 

 Lands up about the headwaters, it is a happy party, 

 equipped to unlimited expense and good judgment, and it is 

 hoped they will realize alJ the sport dreamed of when the 

 excursion was planned. 



Who Takes the H^er^— Editor Forest and Stream: In 

 answer to "G. F, K,," Sayville, L. I., in Forest and 

 Stream for Oct. 15, page 228, "Who Takes the Deer?" here 

 is my experience: Ten years ago this season we were in the 

 Adirondacks (Essex county), and I asked the same question 

 of one of the old settlers and hunters, and the answer was: 

 Tiie dog takes the hide; and I think that was all, although I 

 was told it might sometimes be considered pohcy to give the 

 owner of the dog a quarter of the carcass as a preventive of 

 his accidentally mistaking you .sometime on purpose for 

 game and serving you as you did the deer. — Drawer 1606. 



