6 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



pAlr. 28, 1886. 



Horace T. Rockwell, John T. Stetson, H. H, Kimball. 

 Charles Whittier; Treasurer, Frederick R. Shattuck; Secre- 

 tary, Henry J. Thayer; Librarian, John Fottler, Jr.; Execu- 

 tive Committee, Charles L. Woodbury, "Warren Hapgood, 

 William S. Hills, W. C. Taft, Edward S. Tobey, Jr., Ed- 

 ward E. Small, John P. Woodbury, Joseph W. Smith, John 

 Fottler, Jr., B. F. Nichols, H. C. Litchfield, B. C. Clark; 

 Committee on Membership, W. M. Brackett, H. J. Thayer, 

 H. C. Litchfield. 



SHOTS AMONG THE PRAIRIE CHICKENS. 



HAVING little time and less money to spare last fall, 

 but being — as usual — possessed of a very large desire 

 to look at something over my gun barrels, fortune favored 

 me one day late in September on meeting a friend who said : 

 "I understand yon have been out chicken shooting " I had 

 been up north about eighty miles, where, I was told, I could 

 find a few birds, aud Tfound them few indeed— I tramped 

 for three days— got up a flock of sis and divided even with 

 them, taking three ior my part, and came home. "Yes," I 

 said; ''I have been out, but found few birds and no sport." 

 "Well," be answered, "now I want you should lay out a 

 trip aud go with me." I told him I could hardly stand 

 another trip. "But," said he, "this is my trip. You will 

 go with me, will you not?" You would be almost surprised 

 to know bow little urging it required to induce me to say 

 yes. As my friend had recently been presented with a fine 

 Irish setter but had no gun, he insisted I should go with 

 him and select au outfit, which we at once proceeded to do 

 and accomplished satisfactorily. 



After making what inquiries I could for several days I 

 nearly satisfied myself that all localities within a few hun- 

 dred miles had been shot over. As this was toward the last of 

 the month and the law was off on the first, if we decided to 

 hunt within a radius of four or five hundred miles we should 

 be obliged to glean the fields where others had reaped the 

 harvest; so we decided to start for Nebraska, hoping to get 

 beyond the market hunters, especially those who had hunted 

 for this market, for the woods are full of them all over the 

 West, and they are wiping out the game of all kinds as 

 effectually as a fire licks up the prairie grass. We bought 

 tickets to Omaha, with a privilege of a rebate if we decided 

 to stop anywhere this side; but after diligent inquiry at 

 every possible point and opportunity we traveled across the 

 States of Illinois and Iowa from east to west, receiving but 

 the one answer, "The birds have been about all shot off." 



Now this looks a little sad, that in two States, where but 

 a very few years ago chickens enough could be found 

 almost anywhere to make excellent sport, one should be told 

 ere the first, month of the shooting season is over, that "the 

 birds have been about all shot off." It only reveals the 

 truth that our game of all kinds is being rapidly and surely 

 exterminated. 1 am aware that in the Great West everything 

 is done on the ' 'broad gauge" plan, and that a majority of 

 sportsmen here think they must have a "pile" of game in 

 order to get any sport out of it; but they will very soon have 

 to moderate their desires and learn to get more sport out of 

 less game. 



We arrived at Omaha in the evening, and stopping over 

 night were told that a great many chickens had been shot 

 about 100 miles west on the IT. P. R, R. We told our in- 

 formant that we were not after chickens that had been shot, 

 in fact we were not in the second-had business at all, but had 

 started for some locality where we could "sit down at the 

 first table." The next morning we took cars and after rid- 

 ing about eighty miles in a northwest direction were landed 

 at the little town of Bancroft on the edge of the Omaha In- 

 dian reservation. A few moments' conversation with the 

 landlord, a Parker gun behind the desk and two Russian 

 setter dogs under the table, satisfied me that we had made 

 no mistake in our location. I being the commissary of the 

 party, was ordered to make arrangements for our supplies 

 during our stay, which I did by saying we should want a 

 team at our disposal which would stand fire, enough to eat 

 and a good bed to sleep on at night. "How long do you 

 propose to stay?" asked the landlord. Our answer was: 

 "Until we get satisfied." The price was named and that 

 settled it. 



About this time we were called in to dinner, where we 

 were seated at a little round table with plates for four, two 

 of which were already occupied by a middle-aged gentleman 

 and a young lady. Do I hear some one ask, What has all 

 this got to do with chicken shooting? Don't be in a hurry, 

 young man; go slow and I will tell you all about it. After 

 dinner my friend in looking at the" hotel register, read the 

 names immediately above ours: Mr. S— — and daughter. 

 As the aforesaid daughter was standing near him while Mr. 



S had gone to order up his team preparatory to starting, 



my friend with all due apologies inquired of the young lady 



if Mr. S was a native of the town of M , State of 



Connecticut, and being answered affirmatively, my friend 

 said: "Will you please tell him an old schoolmate would 

 like to speak with him before he leaves?" Such is life; 

 here were two men, past the meridian of life, who had never 

 met or even heard of each other since the old brown door of 

 an obscure Connecticut schoolhouse had closed behind them. 

 One had served his country as a soldier through the civil 

 war and bore the scars of battle; and both in mercantile 

 pursuits had wandered west to meet here by the merest 

 chance for the first time since they were boys together. It 



is sufficient for this narrative to say that Mr. S ordered 



bis tram returned to the stable, and he and his fair daughter 

 did not leave us until we had finished our week's sport, add- 

 ing very much to our enjoyment. 



Prairie chicken shooting is par excelleme the sport of the 

 lazy man; it is the easiest of all land shooting — first, because 

 the field is always open, and if one is too lazy to walk he 

 can shoot from a horse or wagon; second, because early in 

 the season, before the birds are quite matured, or have been 

 too often disturbed, they will lie in the tall grass as close and 

 long as one wishes; and thirdly, because they make a good 

 big mark, flying true and not "too rapidly, and there is so 

 much of them that one need not fear of blowing tbem all to 

 pieces, leaving nothing but feathers in the air. If they hap- 

 pen to get up too near for a shot, you can measure your dis- 

 tance, knowing there is no bush or tree for them to dodge 

 behind. Thus in all respects they make fine game for one 

 not disposed to lie m a hurry; and for these same reasons 

 the gentle things are easy plunder for the unscrupulous mar- 

 ket-hunter. Later in the season (or at the time we were 

 out), during the last of September, the birds are fully ma- 

 tured, have become stronger flyers, and have been made a 

 little more shy from an occasional shot among them, even 

 in this far off locality, and will not always allow a dog to 

 approach so near them; and if a bird gets up twenty-five or 

 thirty yards away one has to wink his eye pretty quick in 



order to stop him, for being strong they will carry off quite 

 a weight of shot unless winged or hit in a vital part. 



We shot mostly on the Omaha Indian reservation, which 

 here is quite rolling, but excellent land covered with a heavy 

 growth of prairie grass, and there being no fences we could 

 drive at will m almost any direction. The Indians had here 

 a few fields of corn and other grains, but there were thous- 

 ands of acres over which we could ride and shoot at pleasure. 

 Our wagon was a comfortable two-seated spring wagon 

 with a park top which would carry four or six persons and 

 our dogs, and we had a couple of ponies somewhat larger 

 than jack rabbits for a team which would walk or run all 

 day, but manifested a most decided disinclination to trot. 

 We had taken two dogs with us, an Irish and English set- 

 ter and our landlord had two Russian setters which were at 

 our service, so we were pretty well hxed for an enjoyable time. 



Our mode of proceeding was about this: We would! get 

 an early breakfast, load up dogs, guns, ammunition, lunch, 

 a hig jug of water for ourselves and the dogs; thus equipped 

 our party of four, as reorganized, would point the ponies 

 (which my friend named Splinters and Shanks) for the In- 

 dian reservation, when a ride of a little more than a mile 

 would bring us on to good shooting grounds. We always 

 drove to the leeward of the field over which we designed to 

 shoot. Then we would get out, leaving Miss 8. to manage 

 the team, following slowly in our wake and occasionally 

 marking birds for us, which services she rendered in an 

 admirable manner, and with a new and delightful pleasure 

 to herself. With the four dogs, the three of us keeping 

 about two hundred yards apart and moving in line as nearly 

 as practicable, each would generally find birds enough for 

 his individual shooting without disturbing the others or 

 placing them in danger; and when one's pockets became too 

 heavy for comfort or convenience, he would fall back to 

 the wagon and deposit his load. Occasionally we would all 

 meet at the wagon, when we would water the dogs.sample our 

 lunch, a cigar, look over our birds, and when we had finished 

 our chat and were thoroughly rested , start, out for another 

 tramp. Thus^we would put in the time till about 11 o'clock, 

 when it was time to bundle ourselves and dogs into the wagon 

 and drive back to the hotel for dinner, after which came 

 cigars and usually a game of cards till about 3 o'clock, when 

 we would find ourselves again seated in the wagon and on 

 our way for the evening shoot, which usually lasted far into 

 the "twilight soft and gray." To me there is a rare and 

 indescribable delight in shooting on a still, quiet evening, 

 watching the last rays of the setting sun,, and the last faint 

 glimmer of light as it quietly passes away under the gauzy 

 curtain of night. (May the last days of all good sportsmen 

 be as quiet and pleasant.) We always found supper await- 

 ing us on our arrival home, when after cariug for the dogs 

 and shedding our hunting traps, and taking a good square 

 tin pan bath, we, "us four and no more," would gather 

 about tne little round table aforesaid, doing ample justice to 

 broiled chickens, flanked by vegetables, warm biscuit, 

 pastry, etc. After supper we would look to the comfort of 

 the dogs, and then seat ourselves for a cheerful chat and 

 game of cards till bed time. 



Should you ask me now how many birds we bagged, I 

 could not tell; I kept tally till we got past 100 and then 

 quit. We did not forget our friends nor neglect ourselves, 

 for we sent away a box each day, and kept a string haa^ing 

 under the little porch of the hotel from which our table was 

 supplied at each meal. Thus we passed the week, changing 

 our route occasionally, always getting birds enough to make 

 it enjoj^able sport, never turning it into downright slaugh- 

 ter, and leaving birds "enough and to spare." And with it 

 all we had a good time. A. 



Chicago, III. 



KENTUCKY GAME NOTES. 



THE past season has been remarkably barren of sports. 

 After a favorable summer and an apparent plentiful- 

 ness of nesting birds, the most inviting covers were drawn 

 blank. In few instances were more than two rounds neces- 

 sary to insure an oiling up aud "filing away" of guns. The 

 heaviest mast the old-timers ever saw brought not a pigeon 

 nor a squirrel. Streams that a few years ago furnished ex- 

 cellent sport will not now furnish bait. 



A few sportsmen met in Louisville during the fall and 

 evolved a new game and fish law, which Chairman Barbour 

 has submitted to the Solons now in session at the capital; 

 but precedents forebode trouble if not defeat. Without leg- 

 islation radically different from past enactments, sports in 

 the blue-grass belt will soon be an item of pioneer history. 



Very few legislators (?) appear to realize that rapid rota- 

 tion is the prevailing practice; aud no sooner than assured 

 of their election, all foolishly set about a canvass for re-elec- 

 tion which rarely materializes. Asinine pudges are given 

 during canvasses, and coupled with an equally asinine am- 

 bition to go back, handicap representatives so heavily that 

 intelligent and imperative legislation in the interest of game 

 and fish is nearly au impossibility. Two or three instances 

 of observance of our fish law of ten years ago demonstrated 

 its wisdom so clearly that not a complaint was heard ; but 

 universal evasions of the penalties and the notorious partici- 

 pation in infractions of the law by officers sworn to encom- 

 pass the observance of that law, soon resulted in a lapse to 

 the old state of vandalism from which we were but tempo- 

 rarily lifted. 



May the fates prosper the efforts of the gentlemen striving 

 to benefit the ignorant and perverse, and their labors result 

 in a law whose penalties will command its religious observ- 

 ance through a mortal fear of the consequences of violation. 



During a late horseback trip to the mountains I was in the 

 saddle the greater portion of seven days' traversing a finely 

 timbered section, and though informed by every one that 

 squirrels were plentiful I didn't see one except on the tables 

 at two houses. One large bunch of mallards flyiug up Cum- 

 berland River and two bevies of quail was all the game that 

 I saw. and every day that I was out was a good day for 

 gunning. I was invited to occupy a deer stand within four 

 miles of a country town, where two of five deer had been 

 bagged a few days before, but business forbade. Within 

 twenty miles of home 1 was shown the leg of a t wo year old 

 doe, one of thirteen deer started in one drive. 



A night at Uncle Joe's was next thing to one spent in 

 camp, His reminiscences of large and small game captured 

 within ear shot of the fireside beside which we sat were de- 

 lightful. He told me that there are several bunches ol deer 

 in the country, and that on the Tennessee border bears have 

 increased so rapidly as to become seriously destructive of 

 mountain sheep. 



A little conservatism and concert would soon render the 

 mountains of Kentucky as rich in sports as when Uncle Jee 

 was a middle-aged man and 1 a boy, thirty-five years ago. 



Central Kentucky. KenttjckiAN. 



THE ADIRONDACK DEER. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



A long letter originally printed in the New York Times 

 has been copied into several of our journals. Its statements 

 are so inaccurate and its reasoning' so fallacious that I pro- 

 pose to go through it and show its worth! essness as an argu- 

 ment for deer hounding. The writer says : 



Every year a larger number of people than went the previous year | 

 visit that region in search of health or amusement, or both, but they 

 leave early m the fall, because the game laws are so framed that 

 there is little to amuse them after Sept. 1. 



This may be true of some parts of the Adirondacka, but it 

 is not true with respect to the north side. Parties go into 

 the woods as Jong as the weather is warm. Only the pot- 

 hunter would stay later. 



In so large and sparsely settled a region as that under considera- 

 tion no law can be effective which does not appeal to the common 

 sense of the majority of ibe resident population, for they and they 

 only, can prevent the violation of the law by irresponsible people, 

 and unlets they will co-operate with the authorities the State cannot 

 secure gamekeepers enough to prevent the hunters from breaking 

 the law. 



That is about so. If gentlemen (?) like "J. T. D." will 

 violate the law, by all means repeal the law. Don't punish 

 the offender because "the State cannot secure gamekeepers 

 enough to do it." Poor little Empire State, how 1 pity you 

 in your helplessness. 



It had always been the custom until this year to use dogs in start- 

 ing the deer, so as to drive them past the point where the hunter can 

 get a shot. 



It had always been the custom to run the deer to water 

 and kill it with a club. 



The deer can easily distance the dog, and by running to some hrook 

 or pond can throw the dog off the scent and escape, unless he hap- 

 pens to come to the spot where the hunter is waiting for a chanc • to 

 shoot. 



Yes, the deer can outrun the dog for a short distance. 

 That only. The pure hound is too slow for this business. . 

 Guides use a mongrel— just hound enough to follow the 

 scent. A dog that runs fast and gives little tongue is the 

 best for deer. Why dou't "J, T. D." describe the "spot" ' 

 where the hunter waits for a shot? I will supply the omis- 

 sion. It is at a pond or lake on some bushy point. His 

 guide is with him; his boat is hidden from sight, but where 

 it can be pushed into the water in a moment. There is not ; 

 a panther in the Adirondacks but will tree to a good dog in ] 

 from five to thirty minutes; yet he could easily kill a dozen ' 

 dogs had not nature given him a mortal fear of that deter- 

 mined animal. So with the deer. In his terror he flies to 

 the nearest pond to "throw off the scent." He plunges into . 

 the water. Perhaps he has had a hard run for miles; per- 

 haps the water is icy cold. There is no pity in the breasts 

 of sportsman (?) and guide who, hidden on that bushy point, 

 are waiting for it. As soon as the deer is out far enough so 

 they can cut him off from the shore, they put out in the i 

 boat. What follows is cold-blooded, deliberate butchery. 

 Swiftly, silently the boat approaches the victim. At a dis- 

 tance of ten or fifteen rods it is discovered by the deer, that 

 now makes frantic efforts to escape. The powerful arms of 

 the guide soon send the boat to within a few feet of the 

 doomed animal. Then the Winchester is a favorite weapon. 

 If the deer is not killed by the time the magazine is emptied, 

 the guide holds it by the tail while the sp'ortsman (?) beats 

 its brains out with a club (carefully provided by the guide i 

 for just such an emergency). 



Consequently not more than one deer in ten which are started is i 

 likely to come within shooting distance, ualess the hunting party is i 

 a very large one. Even when the deer goes within shooiiug distance 

 the hunter frequently misses Are anil the animal makes his escape. 



The sportsmau (?) always employs a guide; the party gen- , 

 erally consists of several person*. One guide puts out the i 

 dogs, and from his knowledge of the country and previous 

 hunts of like nature can tell about where the deer will water, 

 and the rest of the party post themselves accordingly. Prob- 1 

 ably not one in ten escape. 



This kind of hunting gives employment to the ereatest number of 

 men and does as little harm to the deer as any method tnat is em- i 

 ployed 



Yes, it gives employment to men, but is that employment 

 an advantage to them after all? The guide keeps a pack of 

 hounds (but no hogs) all the year; neglects all other work- 

 for perhaps a month's employment "hounding." As for the 

 deer, it is simply death for it, and after being run by a dog 

 for hours and theu plunged into an icy lake, probably death 

 by a club is a relief. 



In fact, it is well known that every deer killed by hounding costs the 

 sportsman at least §150 in expenses for camping utensils, guides, pro- 

 visions, etc., but the health and enjoyment derived from a life in the 

 woods amply rcpiy him for the expenses. 



That is all moonshine. I have known parties to sell veni- 

 son enough to pay expenses. I have known men who used 

 to make up a hounding party every fall to hunt with hounds 

 for profit. 



The use of dogs, however, makes the deer wild, so that the pot- 

 hunter who is shooting for the market cannot easily make his ex- 

 pense, and therefore last winter, by appealing to the sympathies of 

 many members of the Legislature who were not familiar with the 

 subject, some of the pot-hunters' friends procured the passage of a 

 law prohibiting the use of dogs, and what was the result? 



So Forest astj Stream is the pot-hunter's friend, is it? 

 And the thousands who signed its petitions for a non-hound- 

 ing law are all pot-hunters or their friends? So far as 1 

 know the result was to lessen the number of deer killed ; it 

 gave an outer who wanted a deer for camp a chance to kill 

 it without a dog, and gave some people and papers a chance 

 to howl. 



The guides lost their usual employment ia September and October 

 because people did uot dare to break the law, but they had to make 

 their living and provide for their families; therefore, they were forced 

 to hunt deer and sell the hides to the peddlers, as well as the meat, 

 when they could do so. The hide of a good deer brings $1.50, and the 

 meat must be c«irried out of the woods on the hunter's back on the 

 chance of finding some one to buy it Of course, at these rates, it 

 takes a great deal of hunting to realize $2.50 a day that the hunter 

 would have were he acting as guide for a sportsman, feeling sure of 

 his money whether the sportsman had good or poor luck. The result 

 of all this legal red tape has been plainly shown in the small section ' 

 of FranKlin county with which I am familiar, where up to the latest 

 accounts 66 deer had been killed this fall, as against an average of 35 

 to 30 each year when hounding was allowed. Under the old law the 

 deer were steadily increasing in tne section I virit, and I never saw 

 tracks of both large and smalt deer so plentiful as they were in the 

 fall of 1881. 



Perhaps the guide did lose his usual employment in Sep- 

 tember and October, but then he had a chance to harvest his 

 crops. Does "J. T. D." mean to tell us as an honest fact 

 that but twenty- five or thirty deer were killed each year by 

 hounding iu Franklin county? Why I know of a single 

 party killing as many as that in a single hunt on the southern 

 border of St. Lawrence. "J. T. D " "never saw tracks so 

 plentiful as in the fall of '84." Well; when the woods are 

 full of hounds deer will make tracks, and plenty of them, 

 there's no doubt about that. 



Many persons suppose that the deer are caught and torn by the 

 dogs, but this is a mistake, as a dog cannot catch a deer unless tbera 



