80 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 11, 1886. 



May urging him to sign the bill against hounding. Is Mr. 

 Matteson a pot-hunter? Gen. R. U. Sherman, secretary of 

 the Fish Commission, is on record in these words: 



"The number of deer wantonly killed by hounding by far exceeds 

 those killed out of season, and the slaughter cf the animals for more 

 sport is an evil which demands prompt attention. Men seem to have 

 just found out how easy a matter it is to get deer in this way. I am 

 of the opinion that running deer with dogs should be prohibited, as 

 there seems to be no other alternative. " 



Does Dr. Ward presume to class Gen. Sherman among the 

 pot-hunters? Among the subscribers to a fund to pay a 

 special officer to enforce the law against hounds in the 

 Beaver River district last summer were Hon. Lansing Hotal- 

 ing, of Albany; Prof. E. L Richards, of Yale College; Dr. 

 Spencer M. Nash, of New York city, and Charles Fenton, 

 of Number Four. Does Dr. Ward mean seriously to tell us 

 that these men are pot-hunters? Mr. Edward C. Litchfield, 

 of Brooklyn, is strong in his condemnation of the injury of 

 hounding. Does Dr. Ward class Mr. Litchfield among the 

 pot-hunters? We might fill a column with such names as 

 these, but it hardly seems worth while gravely to consider 

 this silly and preposterous pot-hunter pretext. 



4. The pamphlet is misleading and deceptive when it de- 

 clares that "to follow deer with hounds" is a historic and 

 sportsmanlike method. What if it be so? That has noth- 

 ing to do with the Adirondack style of hounding. In the 

 North Woods the sportsmen do not follow the hounds. 

 They sit on the bank or in a boat and wait to be rowed out 

 to within arm's length of the exhausted deer swimming in 

 the water. There is nothing exhilarating about the water- 

 butchery of deer until the butchers have become abnormally 

 hardened to it. Ninety-nine deer out of every one hundred 

 killed by bounding in the North Woods are killed in the water. 

 Only the hundredth is killed on a runway.after the manner of 

 hounding as practiced elsewhere in this country. To call this 

 water-butchery historic and sportsmanlike is grotesque. 



5. The pamphlet is misleading and deceptive when it rep- 

 resents that the welfare of the North Woods guides and 

 hotel keepers depends on hounding. Of a thousand Adiron- 

 dack tourists, less than one hundred go to hound deer. The 

 nine hundred would gladly see the hounds kept out. The 

 guides are not dependent on the hounders; they can find 

 abundant employment in other ways. The most intelligent 

 guides recognize that hounding destroys the deer supply and 

 is opposed to their true interests. Many, of these guides 

 petitioned the Legislature last year to pass the hounding law. 

 They have not since then changed their opinion of the wis- 

 dom of the measure — statements in this pamphlet to the con- 

 trary notwithstanding. We challenge the compilers of this 

 document to name one man whose opinion is entitled to re 

 spect, who was last year in favor of a non-hounding law and 

 is now opposed to it. 



6. The pamphlet is misleading and deceptive when it argues 

 that the deer supply has increased within the past "five and 

 ten" years. The exact opposite is the truth, and no one 

 knows it better than the dogger. It was in fact the alarming 

 decrease of deer that started the friends of game protection 

 to work for the abolition of bounding, the most destructive 

 method of hunting the deer in the Adirondack region, and 

 one which, if persisted in, means the extermination of the 

 game. 



7. The pamphlet is misleading and deceptive when it avers 

 that hounding "is one of the least destructive methods" of 

 hunting deer. Of all the modes employed in that region it 

 is only less destructive than crusting, and crusting is very 

 properly forbidden by the present law. Hounding is more 

 destructive than floating or still hunting, because more sure. 

 It can be practiced— and in fact is practiced — at all seasons. 

 It requires no experience nor skill. The deer is driven into 

 the water and the hunter is rowed within short range. 

 It is a common thing for the guide to hold the 

 deer by the tail while the "hunter" shoots or clubs 

 it to death. Just because it is so sure and so easy it is 

 clamored for by one class of guides and one class of tourists. 

 By it they have killed 75 per cent, of all the deer killed in 

 the North Woods. These classes are now clamoring for a 

 law against floating. Why? Not because they believe that 

 it will save the game, but because they hope thereby to 

 regain the privilege of hounding. Why do they want to 

 exchange jacking for hounding? Because by the latter 

 method they can get more deer. Jacking is uncertain, often 

 barren of result. Hounding is sure four times in five. 

 They want the sure method. They demand that the hound 

 be again put on the track of the buck and the doe and the 

 fawn. But the men who ask for hounding are only a small 

 class compared with the whole number of Adirondack guides 

 and visitors, for — 



8. The document is misleading and deceptive when it 

 states that more deer were killed last season by still-hunting 

 and floating than in any recent previous year by these 

 methods and floating combined. The statistics given in the 

 pages of the pamphlet and quoted from the Boonville 

 Herald are wholly without foundation. They are not 

 authenticated by any responsible person. Nobody but a 

 highly constituted idiot would believe them nor expect 

 others to believe them. Moreover, jacking was practioed 

 last June, hounding was extensively practiced last summer, 

 and crusting has been practiced this winter. By these three 

 illegitimate methods, A it is fair to presume, as many deer 

 were kiled as were taken by lawful jacking in the open 

 season -aad by still-hunting. If venison was cheaper than 

 sisuaL it *aa waterJplJfid yeeuaon and crust.kiiled venison — ' 



as set forth in the pamphlet, pages 14 and 17— both methods 

 are forbidden by law and meat so obtained is contraband. 



9. The document is misleading and deceptive in the plea 

 that deer must be hounded that they may be made shy. 

 Hounding does prevent the taking of deer by still-huntiug. 

 It does not prevent it by making the deer shy. It prevents 

 it by killing them. A deer driven by hounds into the water 

 and clubbed to death in August cannot be shot by a still hun- 

 ter in the autumn, That is exactly the way hounding works. 

 If dogs are used no deer will be left to be taken by any other 

 method w batever. The pretext that hounding is preservative 

 of the deer is rubbish. The men who dog do not dog 

 for the purpose of protecting. They dog to capture and kill. 

 Aid they do kill. They exterminate. One of the profes- 

 sional gentlemen whose letters are published in this pamphlet 

 has made it a custom for years past to dog deer by the whole- 

 sale, to kill more than could bo consumed as food, and to 

 leave the carcasses to rot in the woods. That is the sort of 

 making shy the hounders call for and that is the way they 

 practice it. 



The excessive killing by still-hunting, it is admitted by the 

 hounders, is the work of market-hunters. The way to stop this 

 is to cut off the market. Forbid the transportation and sale of 

 game. For years the Forest and Stream has urged such 

 a law. Every sportsman would rejoice to see that provision 

 on the statute books. We strongly urge the passage of a 

 bill to that effect by the present Legislature. 



But to make such a law at the sacrifice of the present non- 

 hounding statute would not save the game. Tbe repeal of 

 the present law, on any pretext whatever, would mean the 

 doom of the Adirondack deer. The hounding law is wise 

 and beneficial. Let it stand. Enforce it. The State of 

 New York cannot afford to repeal it. The community can- 

 not afford to put the hounds again on the track to drive deer 

 into the water. It would be sheer and irreparable folly and 

 improvidence to sacrifice the game supply of the Adirondacks 

 to the selfish, time serving and greedy clamorers for permis- 

 sion to hound. 



Fifty-eight Foxes, Fouteen Dogs and Two Italians. 

 — Hawley, Pa,, Feb. 8.— About twenty years aso Randall 

 Kellum, of Kimbles, Pike county, five "miles below this 

 place, on the Honesdale branch of the Erie Railway, 

 purchased a horse for which he paid $90. He worked 'it 

 daily on his farm until one day last week when the horse 

 died. The neighborhood of Kimbles, and in fact all through 

 that part of the country, has been literally overrun with 

 foxes this season. As has been the case in Sullivan county, 

 across the Delaware River, the farmers have lost hundreds 

 of chickens and other poultry by the bold raids of these 

 usually timid animals. Farmer Kellum hit upon a plan that 

 he thought might destroy a large number of the thieving 

 pests, and that was to put strychnine in the carcass of tbe 

 old horse, arid place the body in a spot where foxes would 

 be sure to flock to it. The "deadly drug was accordingly 

 placed plentifully in the flesh of the dead horse, and the 

 carcass was hauled to an out-of-the-way spot in the woods, 

 two or three miles from Kimbles, and left there. The next 

 morning Kellum went early to the woods to see if his plan 

 hid worked successfully. He found lying scattered about in 

 ail directions, and none of them far away from the poisoned 

 horse, 39 dead foxes. How many more managed to get to 

 tbeir holes or hiding places before they died was of course 

 unknown. Mr. Kellum had the foxes taken home, and the 

 next morning went to the woods again. There were no 

 foxes found, as could hardly have been expected, as the 

 horse during 'the previous night had been monopolized by 

 half the dogs in the neighborhood. 14 of which were found 

 dead at the scene of their feast. "With barely an exception 

 the dogs were animals that had long been suspected of 

 habitual wholesale killing of sheep in the vicinity, so the 

 night's woik was regarded as an excellent one. The follow- 

 ing morning Kellum visited the remains of his old horse 

 again, and this time picked up 19 dead foxes. He was re- 

 turning home loaded down with fox pelts, when about a 

 mile from Kimbles, he heard moans and cries of pain issuing 

 from the woods, some distance off to his right from the 

 road. Kellum made his way to the spot from which the 

 sounds proceeded, and found two Italian quarrymen rolling 

 in the snow and writhing in pain. "Upon asking them what 

 the matter was one of the Italians told bim that they had 

 found a frozen horse in the woods, and had cut a piece of 

 meat from it, which they had roasted over a fire and eaten. 

 They were almost immediately seized with intense pains in 

 the stomach. Kellum waited to hear no more. He knew at 

 once that the Italians had eaten a piece of his poisoned horse. 

 He started on a run for the station to telegraph for a doctor. 

 Fortunately, Dr. Brace, of Lackawanna, had been called to 

 Kimbles that morning to attend a patient, and Kellum met 

 him as he was flying in for aid for tbe poisoned Italians. 

 Kellum hastily told the doctor the situation and the two 

 hurried back. Dr. Brace administered powerful antidotes 

 to the Italians, and got them to the nearest house. He 

 succeeded in counteracting the poison and in a few hours 

 the Italians were able to go on their way. Kellum lost no 

 time in burying his dead horse. The 58 foxes that fell 

 victims to Kellum's baited horse will net him ,$58 in boun- 

 ties. The pelts he can sell for $3 a piece— a total of $174 

 from a horse dead that only cost him $90 alive and had 

 given him 20 years' faithful service. What the profits would 

 have been if the Italians had died he does not care to cipher 

 on.— N. Y. Times. 



Judge Caton's Hocse Burned. — About midnight of Feb. 

 3 the hou^e of Judge J. D. Caton, at North Bluff, Ottawa. 

 111., caught fire and was burned to the ground. No lives 

 were lost. Judge Caton and his family were not at home, 

 and only the servants occupied the house. Judge Caton's 

 library and his large collection of natural history specimens 

 were destroyed. Among the books burned was a complete 

 set of Audubon's works, and many other valuable volumes. 



"A Currituck Ducking Score." — It is suggested that 

 the above heading in this column last week may convey the 

 erroneous impression that the scores then printed were made 

 on the grounds of the Currituck Club. As a master of fact 

 the shooting was done by the members and on -the grounds 

 of the Narrows Island Club, of Currituck S,oui£{L 



Kent County Sportsmen's Club. — At the annual 

 meeting held in the office of Dr. E. S. Holmes Feb. 9 the 

 following officers were elected: President, Dr. E. S. 

 Holmes; Vice-President, H. Widdieomb; Secretary and 

 Treasurer, N. Fred Avery; Directors, L. D. Follett for one 

 year; A. C. Horton for two years; T. Stewart White for 

 three years; A. B. Richmond for four years, and W. C. 

 Denison for five years. The President was authorized to 

 make application for membership in the National Sports- 

 men's Association. The following were elected delegates to 

 the State Association, which meets in Kalamazoo on the 

 9th inst.: A. B. Turner, A B. Richmond, L. D. Fol- 

 lett, F. E. Blakely and N. Fred. Avery. 



Snipe Shooting Extraordinary — Portland, Ore., Jan. 

 30.— Dr. Jessup, the distinguished dentist and sportsman of 

 this city, reports that on the day following a recent snow 

 storm, he, with a common parlor rifle, from his parlor win- 

 dow, shot and killed eleven English snipe which had gath- 

 ered on the lawn in front of his residence; that he fired only 

 thirteen shots, and that each bird was shot through the 

 neck, and not -elsewhere. Ought the club to question tbe 

 truthfulness of the statement?— C. T. 



Virginia Cold and Game.— Richmond, Va., Felt. 6.— 

 We are having now the coldest weather ever experipneed 

 here. The thermometer registering Thursday morning five 

 degrees below zero. In addition to this the snow is about 

 eleven inches deep. From information gathered from far- 

 mers in the counties of Henrico. Chesterfield and Hanover, 

 1 am afraid poor "Bob White" has been effectually "cleared 

 out." Whole conveys are reported as found frozen to death. 

 -W. H. C. 



Cold Weather in Maine.— A Portland (Me.) correspond- 

 ent who was compelled by the recent cold weal her to sban- 

 don his fox hunting, writes that, upon visiting a known 

 grouse cover he discovered two of the birds frozen to death 

 and covered with ice; tbe iuference is that the ice storm 

 was very destructive of the grouse iu that section. 



A Tame Moose.— Burlington, N. J., Feb, 1. — Ex-Con- 

 gressman H. B. Smith, who announced some weeks ago 

 that he was to establish a papiT here has changed his mind. 

 He has a pet moose from Canada., aud, eschewing politics, 

 is now putting the fleet auimal over the road in high glee. 



Atlanticvtlle, L. I., Feb. 7.— One gun, three days, 

 recently s-ecured fifty ducks, mostly broadtails and whistlers, 

 at the inlet on Shinnecock Bay. — J. W. 



Taunton, Mass.. Feb. 3.— -We have organized a gun club 

 here and own several good dogs among us. — So. 



m mid trivet fishing. 



THE STRIPED BASS LAW. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



We thank you for the prominence which you so kindly 

 gave our communication of the 1st instant, and the very 

 courteous editorial comment on same. 



It is quite true that the present law "does not cover 

 the whole season for striped bass in the Hudson." It is 

 equally true that the present laws in regard to trout and 

 black bass do not cover the whole of the spawning season of 

 either of these two last named fish. Every angler has taken 

 gravid trout in July and gravid bass in August. Jf a law 

 covers the time during which the large majority of any 

 specific class of fish spawns, it does as much as any citizen 

 bas a reasonable right to ask; but it does not serm to us that 

 the fact that a close season is too short is a good reason for 

 making it still shorter. 



So long as it is generally conceded that the chief, if not the 

 sole, reason for anadromous fish ascending fresh-water 

 streams is to spawn, and so long as it is true that in the case 

 of all those anadromous fish, with whose habits we are any- 

 thing like familiar, tbe period covering their ingress and 

 egress covers their spawning seasou, it seems to us to be wise 

 to protect them during tbe greater portion of the time they 

 are in our rivers. Though no man can prove that all of the 

 fertile bass which run up the Hudson do spawn during the 

 present close season, yet no man will presume to deny that 

 many of them do spawn then and there. Nor would the 

 opinion that the constant and permanent supply of striped 

 bass in our waters does not chiefly deppud upon river spawn- 

 ing be seriously entertained by thoughttul students of fish 

 life. 



What you say about the propriety of enacting a law against 

 dragging nets under the ice is most pertinent in this connec- 

 tion. But we believe that so long as there is no l tw against 

 the sale of bass during the seasou at which this abomination 

 is possible, this thing will continue. The philanthropic fi-h 

 mongers say in their petition, "To fairly [fairly seems hardly 

 a proper word under the circumstance! prepare for Lent, 

 our cold storage warehouses should be filled immediately 

 during the present cold season, when the supply is readily 

 obtained." In their eagerness to secure striped bass for the 

 Lenten season they may not have time to find out whether 

 the bass were caught under the ice. And this, besides en- 

 couraging law breaking, would be a constant source of 

 remorse to an excellent and necessary class of peoplp. 



Abbey & Iilbrie. 



New Yoke, Feb. 8. 



[Our correspondents are reminded that the season named 

 iu the law, i, e., Jan. 1 to May 19, is not known to cover any 

 portion of the season of spawning of the striped bass in New 

 York waters, for, as we have poihttd out, but little is known 

 of their spawning habits, and the few eggs which have b en 

 taken from them in tbe Hudson. Our main reason, how- 

 ever, for urging the repeal of the striped bass law, was be- 

 cause the framers of the law did not intend to protect this 

 fish, but meant it for a small fish found in Lake Ontario, and 

 in consequence of this tbe State Game Protectors were in- 

 structed by tbe Fish Commissioners with the sanction of the 

 President of the New York Society for the Protection of 

 Game, of which Mr. lmbrie is a member, not to take notice 

 of this law -or begin any prosecutions under it. The law be- 

 ing a dead (letter— not because of any lack of enforcement hy 

 subordinates, but because the authorities so declared it — we 

 thiuk.it better off the.books than on it. As for the prohibi- 

 tion of netting under the ice in the Hudson, we believe it 

 possible to stop it if a law to that effect is passed. That 

 Kind of netting is done out on tbe ice in full view of citizens 

 along the bank and of passengers iv the cars which run oa 

 both banks of that river, j. 



