28, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



7 



is a heavy snow or unless tie deer Is disabled. Even then, if he 

 should tear tlie deer's hide he would receive such a threshing as 

 would prevent a repetition of the offense, as a torn skin does not find 

 favor with the peddler. The numerous extracts you have from time 

 to time published (taken principally from the Booneville Heralds 

 shows conclusively that it is the pot-hunter shooting for market xvlio 

 is doing the damage in the Adirondacks, and not the summervisitor, 

 wbo it supremely happy if he obtains only one deer with branching 

 horns, and is coo tew ed if he gets any at all. Compare this result with 

 the story of the pot-hunter, published in the Booneville Herald, who 

 shot sixty deer this season for market, or with one of the guides 1 

 know personallv, who shot twentv-nine deer for market in one. small 

 section of woods where, bb I said before, all the summer visitors com- 

 bined have only been able to kill from twenty-five to thirty in a 

 season. One would hardlv imagine that the matter of hounds or no 

 hounds would have any influence outside of the woods, but the actual 

 fact is that in Franklin couwy alone it was estimated by pne ot the 

 papers published in Malone that the falling off in the number of visi- 

 tors caused bv the new law resulted in a loss to Franklin county alone 

 of $50,000. The matter entered into politics to such an extent that 

 the senators and members were called upon for their views on the 

 dog question as soon as they were nominated, and T understand that 

 the supervisors of Franklin county have resolved to petition the 

 Legislature to restore the former law. It is evident that the hunter 

 for market does the most damage, and that men will not hunt for the 

 market if they can obtain other and more remunerative employment 

 as guides in September and October. After Nov. 1 most of tuese men 

 settle down to winter work in the lumber region and do not hunt 

 during the remainder of the year. 



These being the facts, it follows that to preserve game as much as 

 possible, and in order to interest the inhabitants in enforcing the law, 

 a bill should be passed allowing deer to be hunted either with or 

 without bounds during the munths of August, September aud Octo- 

 ber. It should be illegal to allow any venison to be sent out of the 

 Adirondacks during the next Ave years. Such a law would not de- 

 prive the lovers of venison in our large cities of their favorite dish, 

 because there is always an abundant supply from the West. 



Now, Mr Editor, what is the object of game laws? Is it 

 to give employment to guides? Is'it to fill summer resorts 

 with visitors? Is it to give Franklin county $50,000, or is it 

 to give the game such protection as will enable it to hold its 

 own against the raids of all hunters combined? 



TJp to the present season (1885) we had three methods of 

 hunting deer, each popular with some, each more or less 

 destructive. 



First was floating. Destructive, if practiced out of 

 season ; otherwise not very. In order to float at all yon 

 must have a pond or stream, shallow, in portions at least, 

 and containing food. Not one pond in ten is a "good deer 

 pond." Then you must have a boat and experienced pad- 

 dler. You hunt at night. Nearly half the nights are moon- 

 light. Very few deer are killed then. Many other nights 

 are cold, rainy or windy. The good nights for deer after 

 Aug. 1 are but few, and I have lain in a boat all night, one 

 of the hottest, darkest, stillest nights I ever sa w, on a small 

 pond whoseshores were all cut up with fresh tracks, and not 

 heard a sound of a deer. Again, after, about two nights' 

 hunting, and the firing of half a dozen shots, at such a pond 

 deer get "educated," and will run and "blow" at the first 

 glimpse of light or the least sound. 1 have "Boated" many 

 more nights without seeing a deer than those when I have, 

 and 1 do not suppose I have killed over one deer to half a 

 dozen nights. Wounded some, you ask? Well, yes; 

 though no more than are wounded and lost in other methods. 

 So floating is not so awful after all. Besides, there are vari- 

 ous ways to stop floatiug, or at least make it unsuccessful 

 A single "protector" could keep a hundred ponds "doc- 

 tored" so no deer would be killed. How? Just burn brim- 

 stone here and there around it, about once in two weeks. 

 Or, if the guide is so disposed, a misstroke of the paddle, or 

 a little lurch of the boat at the right moment fixes things, 

 and the sportsman is none the wiser. The objection to 

 "floating" is, that it is the favorite method of the guide and 

 fisherman out of season. It is most destructive in the early 

 part of the season, but the enforcement of the law, as it is, 

 would stop that. 



Still-hunting is practiced almost entirely in fall and 

 early winter, and its advocates are mostly the guide and 

 hunter who, after working for pay in the wc ods all summer, 

 want a few days' sport himself. It seldom pays. Many 

 times the game does not sell for enough to any more than 

 pay expenses. Now and then an expert hunter can make 

 money at it. There is but a short time for it, and the good 

 days, like the good nights for floating, are few, and I sus- 

 pect, if the truth Were known, many deer that find their 

 way to market as killed by still-hunting are, in fact, cap- 

 tured by hounds. 



Now for hounding— the real nut we are after. Hounding 

 can be practiced any day in the year. You may have thirty 

 good nights for floating; you may have thirty good days 

 for still-hunting; but you have three hundred and sixty-five 

 for hQunding. 



Great ado has been made about the number of deer killed 

 by still-hunting this fall. The case is simply this. Had 

 hounding been allowed, these same deer, and many more, 

 would have been killed in the summer. 



What nonsense it is to say more deer have been killed be- 

 cause of the non-hounding law. An army is composed of 

 artillery, cavalry and infantry. Disband the infantry, and 

 do you make it more effective? We had three methods of 

 slaughtering deer. We take away the most effective; the 

 one, and the only one certain of success every time, be it 

 wet or dry, hot or cold— and we are told that we must re- 

 store it as the only possible way to prevent the extermina^ 

 tion of deer. 



It is twenty-five years since I killed my first deer. 1 have 

 averaged about oue a year since. I have killed them float- 

 ing, by daylight from a boat, by watching a pond or field, 

 by still-hunting. I once helped kill one by hounding. Sol 

 know a little of all the methods employed. My advice 

 would be, exterminate the mongrel curs that drive deer. 

 Fine or imprison the so-called guides and sportsmen (?) who 

 violate the law, stop the marketing of venison, and educate 

 the public. Then stop tinkering the law, and enforce it. 



E, H. J. 



Canton, S f . Lawrence Co., N. Y. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It is very exciting to hear the dogs driving deer, but the 

 way the law is now the hunters in the couutry have a chance 

 to hunt only by still-hunting, while the hunters back in the 

 wilderness do hunt with dogs as much as ever. It seems to 

 satisfy the hunters if they can have a few days' sport hunting 

 deer with dogs in the fall, but the guides and hunters are all 

 mad and they are bound to kill every deer that there is in 

 the woods. They swear that if we people can't have any 

 chance to govern our own game there shall be no game to 

 protect. I think every county should govern its own game. 



Geo. W. Stowell. 



ScHftooN Lake, Bssex county. 



The following reply to some of the false and silly state- 

 ments printed in the press comes from one whose experience 

 and character give weight to his wordsr 



I notice in your issue of the 24th iust. an aiticle headed 

 ''£he great sjAUghte/- f>t deer last fall," The author of th,afc 



[Cut this out, put it on a blank, obtain signatures and send to your Member at Albany,] 



A PETITION 



For the Continued Protection of Adirondack Deer. 



To the Honorable, the Legislature of the State of New York: 



■ We, the undersigned, residents of County, respectfully petition that the 



law (Chap. 557, Laws of 1885) which makes it "unlawful to pursue any wild deer in this 

 State with any dog or bitch" may not be amended in any such way as to permit the use of 

 dogs for hunting deer at any time. 



(Signed) 



acticle very modestly says "we do not profess to be 

 thoroughly posted on this question but have noted down 

 some of the arguments as given by the advocates of deer 

 hounding." He is therefore excusable for the errors it con- 

 tains. The cry of slaughter comes not so much from those 

 that would preserve the deer as from those that want 

 to kill them, but cannot because they cannot employ 

 a dog to drive them into the water where they can kill 

 them with a club as well as with a gun. 



I wager that not one man in ten who is trying to make 

 out that still hunting is so very easy and successful a mode of 

 hunting can kill one deer during the whole month of No- 

 vember by that mode of hunting. 



The assertion that more deer were killed last fall than 

 there was in the fall of 1884. is erroneous. For so far as I 

 can learn more deer were killed by still-bunters in the fall 

 of 18S4, than there was the present year. Add to what 

 the still-hunters kill, more than four times as many more 

 killed by hounding, and one must be well versed in mathe- 

 matics to make the number less. Why still-hunters killed 

 more in the fall of 1884 was because the weather was more 

 favorable. I know what conditions must exist in order to 

 approach a deer iu the woods and must bold good through- 

 out the whole woods. If more deer were killed last fall thau 

 there was the previous fall they must have been killed by 

 the aid of hounds. It cannot be denied but what hound- 

 ing was practiced to more or less extent in most parts of 

 the wilderness. Iu the Beaver river country not less than 260 

 deer were killed in the season of 1884 Two hundred were 

 killed by driving into the water with hounds and about sixty 

 by still-huuting. Last fall less than sixty were killed on the 

 same territory. Wby was this? Simply because the law 

 against houuding was strictly enforced. Other sections 

 where the law has not been enforced many deer have been 

 killed and crediied to still-hunting. A year ago last fall a 

 party from Jefferson county camped on Beaver river and 

 killed about thirty deer, last fall they went on the same 

 ground and killed four. Another party wbo the previous 

 fall Killed twenty-three, last fall did not kill any. 



The writer says "that deer herd together on their feeding 

 grounds in the open woods, where they are easily approached 

 by the hunter, and sometimes the whole herd are killed." 

 This is a great mistake. 1 was born and raisea in the Adi- 

 rondack wilderness and have hunted deer ever since I was 

 allowed to handle a gun, which was not as the privileged lad 

 of the present day, at the age of ten years, but at sixteen. 

 This long experience has made me thoroughly conversant 

 with the habits of the deer in our North Woods. They do not 

 herd together at all, seldom more than two or three are 

 found together and more often one alone. It is seldom that 

 they come out into open woods during the day. In years 

 when there are beech nuts they come out to feed on the nuts 

 in open beech timber during the night, and almost invariably 

 repair to the swamp and thicket before daylight. If when 

 following a deer it chances to cross open timbered land where 

 it can be seen at a distance, he is sure not to stop there, but 

 seeks some thicket where h* can see the hunter on his track 

 and not be seen himself, and when be lies down almost in- 

 variably lies in a position to watch his back track. The 

 author says "that where there are no dogs to run deer they 

 become tame and are easily approached by the hunter." 

 This is a most preposterous assertion; go into a country 

 where they have never heard a dog or seen a man, they are 

 the same. Itjis instinctive for them to be wild and wary. If 

 the writer does not believe this I would like to have him 

 come and try to get a shot at one. If he does not change 

 his mind in less than a week's time he will differ from every 

 one else that has tried it. 



I deprecate the slaughter of deer by whatever mode it is 

 done. But every thinking man must see that the chances 

 for slaughter are an hundiedfold more than by still-hunting, 

 as it requires no skill or experience. The deer once in the 

 water can be killed as easily as if tangled in the snow crust, 

 and it is a known fact that deer always take to the water 

 when pressed by hounds. 



Still-hunting requires much experience, a great deal of 

 traveling and an acquaintance with the habits of deer. Not 

 more than one in a hundred that goes into the woods to hunt 

 can kill more than two or three deer in one season and more 

 that do not kill any at all. There are the Humes, of Diana, 

 that doubtless kill more than is consistent with the preser- 

 vation of deer. And now one Williams, from Pennsylvania, 

 turns up that kills thirty-two deer, while his two compan- 

 ions who hunted a3 faithfully the same length of time and 

 killed two deer each. It is alleged that he used a pointer 

 dog. The author says that dogs drive the deer into the 

 wiudfalls, swamps and thickets. This would be well if they 

 would leave them there, but the hound will follow them 

 through thick and thin until compelled to take to the water 

 where the hunter is awaiting him. The writer says "that in 

 European countries all the hunting is with dogs." This 

 may be true, but do they drive them into the water and kill 

 them there? No, it would be an unpardonable disgrace for 

 them to kill a deer in that way. This is the very reason 

 why bounds should not be used in our Adirondack wilder- 

 ness — it abounds in lakes and ponds into which the deer are 

 driven and easily killed. Were the hunters obliged to shoot 

 them in the woods while on the full run as it is the only rule 

 to do in the old country, then hounding would not be so de- 

 structive. The State of Massachusetts in her game laws 

 does not prohibit the use of dogs but very wisely makes it a 

 penal offense to kill a deer within a certain distance of water 

 when driven by dogs. The writer says the venison will not 

 be Injured by the chase in cool jyea.ther. He is mistaken. 



The worst hounded venison I ever saw was killed in Novem- 

 ber, with snow on the ground. It was unfit to eat when 

 killed and in twenty-four hours was putrid and had to be 

 thrown away. It is because they cannot endure the race so 

 well that they take to the water so much quicker in cold 

 weather. In view of this fact, if a season for hounding must 

 be tolerated at all, it should not be iu October, but the first ten 

 or fifteen days of September. This would accommodate the 

 greatest number of sportsmen, very few of which remain in 

 the woods after that date. If it is later than this it will be 

 entirely to the interest of pot-hunters. Besides, during Sep- 

 tember deer do not take so readily to water and thus t he op- 

 portunity for slaughter by this mode of hunting would be 

 entirely avoided. 



It is self-interest that causes the hotel keepers in Franklin 

 and Hamilton counties to curst* the new hounding law. They 

 all keep large packs of hounds and they bring revenue to 

 their tills. 



If the State of New York wishes to adopt measures to in- 

 crease the revenue of a few landlords at the expense of the 

 destruction of this most noble game in her great prospective 

 park, she has only to'repeal the non-hounding law and it will 

 be speedily'accomplished. Advocates of hounding claim it is 

 a sportsmanlike way of hunting deer, I do not see it. It is 

 not the part of a sportsman to kill his game by belicing its 

 instincts, or depriving it of the means with which the crea- 

 tor has endowed it for its protection and safety. Let us see 

 how hounding does this. The hunter puts the swift persis- 

 tent hound on the track of the timid deer, his first instinct 

 is flight, by this means he can escape, his human enemy. 

 After a long and frightful race failing in this, he turns 

 toward the water where instinct tells him he can surely baffle 

 the enemy on his track. Half dead with fright and with 

 protruding tongue and panting sides he arrives on the shore 

 of the lake. The water, although cold and uninviting, is now 

 his only place of refuge. He plunges in, and when well out 

 in the lake should be safe, when a boat pushes out from the 

 shore and cuts off its retreat. Witness his frantic plunges, 

 this way and that, in his endeavor to avoid his now more 

 deadly enemy, but it is of no use, escape is impossible, his 

 pitiful bleatings for mercy are of no avail, he is ruthlessly 

 murdered by the pot-hunter or so-called sportsman. His in- 

 stinct has belied him, his fleetness has been taken away from 

 him and like the deer in the snow crust or in the trap, ran be 

 killed with a club as well as with a gun. This is a method 

 of killing deer beside which even the steel trap is a miti- 

 gation, for in his wanderings he accidentally steps in the steel 

 trap and is caught. But in this great water trap you take 

 advantage of his instinct and compel him to come in and 

 be caught. I think that hounding deer should be prohibited 

 on the ground of its cruelty and inhumanity, if it did not 

 lead to speedy extermination, which it surely does. 



Keep the non-hounding law where it is, add to it a more 

 effective detective force, and if it be evident that by any 

 other method of hunting too many deer can be killed, legis- 

 late some measure to curtail their numbers and plenty of 

 deer are insured, sufficient for all reasonable demands of the 

 sportsman and the tourist in our great Adirondack wilder- 

 ness so long as it remains a wilderness. C. Fentost. 



SHOOTING IN CUBA. 



ABOUT twelve miles due south from Habana and two 

 west from the railroad station at Eincon lies one of 

 the tracts (1,300 acres) renied by the Habana Field Sport 

 Club, and policed by its own special constable. These 

 grounds inclose three large lagoons, favorite resorts in win- 

 ter of coots, teal and other ducks, and their borders are fre- 

 quented by snipe and other marsh birds. Thus they had 

 been heretofore much visited by local hunters from many 

 miles around, some of whom sought invitations from the club 

 by offering to its members the attention to conduct them in 

 excursions outside of this tract, where good sport could 

 sometimes be bad. Some of these attentions had been 

 accepted from two of these parties, who professed to have 

 two wonderfully fine retrievers for these reedy and difficult 

 lagoons, and they were consequently invited to have a day 

 with the«club in these waters. The morning was cloudy and 

 dark, threatening drizzling rain, which threatening con- 

 tinued to hover over us without, however, coming to a 

 downright rain storm. 



The visitors were supposed and indeed supposed them- 

 selves to be so much better posted in successful methods of 

 the chase in this particular region that they were asked to 

 indicate the most efficacious plan, and were'shown the four 

 boats belonging to the club, fitted with racks for blinding, 

 etc. Flattered by such bowing to their superior skill, they 

 were inclined to be a trifle boastful, especially of the superior 

 qualities of their retrievers, which they said would be sure 

 to follow the wounded birds into the most impenetrable 

 reeds; and they chose for themselves to go in the boats, 

 while most of the members present distributed themselves 

 to favorable positions on shore to intercept the biros in their 

 flight. But in the general eagerness to get into position, and 

 the confidence that the visitors were so well versed in lagoon 

 shooting, we neglected to mention to them that under the 

 administration of the Field Trial Club there might be some 

 slight changes that had taken place since ite, advent to these 

 waters, for instance, that there were some birds there with 

 peculiarities such as the visitors had never before seen, though 

 they looked for all the world just like those they had so often 

 found here. These were in groups in the furthest part of the 

 larger* lagoon, which the hosts had to traverse slowly and 

 with ;h<; greatest pantjon. Rowing the gf^us edge of its 



