June 3, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



3 71 



EASTHAMPTON GAME CLUB. 



FOLLOWING are tlie by-laws and the form of agreement 

 entered into by the members of the club and the land 

 owners from whom 'they rent shooting privileges: 



BY-LAWS. 



1. The name of this organization shall be the Easthampton 

 Game Club, of Easthampton, Mass. 



2. Its officers shall consist of a president, secretary and 

 treasurer, and such other officers as the association may 

 deem necessary. „ 



3. There shall be three standing committees called the 

 land committee, the prosecuting committee and the posting 

 committee. 



4 The duty of the land committee shall be to negotiate 

 with land owners for the exclusive right of this association 

 to take game on their grounds for such consideration as may 

 be agreed upon between the parties, giving the association 

 the right to prosecute ad trespassers under the statute. The 

 area of territory hired for such purposes shall be left largely 

 to the discretion of the committee, but all acts of committees 

 shall be subject to the approval of the association. 



5. The duty of the prosecuting committee shall be to keep 

 careful watch of the premises controlled by the association 

 and to prosecute all violations of the trespass act when in 

 their judgment the case demands it. 



6. The duty of the posting committee shall be to post 

 such lands as are reported to them by the land committee 

 as being under control of the association. 



7. The above-named committees shall consist of three 

 members each, and shall be elected at the annual meeting of 

 the association. 



8. The president, secretary and treasurer shall be elected 

 at the annual meeting of the association, or by special election 

 should a vacancy occur. 



9. The election of all officers and committees may be by 

 nomination and viva voce vote of the association. 



10. There may be special committees appointed at any 

 time by the association for special purposes. 



11. The annual meeting of this association shall be held on 

 the first Wednesday of July, and special meetings, by 

 request of five members. It shall be the duty of the secre- 

 tary to notify each member of said .meeting six days before 

 the time of its appointment. 



12. All members will be required to pay a fee of two dol- 

 lars on admission to the association. Any citizen of East- 

 hampton may be admitted a member by being recommended 

 by prosecuting committee and paying fees. Any member 

 found violating these by-laws and so reported can be expelled 

 at any meeting duly called. 



13. Each member shall report to the secretary and treas- 

 urer the amount and kind of game taken, and on whose 

 lands during the hunting season, and pay into the treasury 

 all dues on or before the first day of January of each year. 



14. jSTo member shall be allowed to take game for the mar- 

 ket. To guard against fires, all members will be required to 

 use the manufactured wad. and none other under any cir- 

 cumstances. All members will use care in climbing fences 

 and see that they are not disturbed or made unsafe 

 thereby. 



15. It shall be the duty of the treasurer to pay over to the 

 owners of land, each his share of all dues at the close of the 

 season, i. e., on or before the tenth day of January each year. 



16. It shall be the duty of the secretary to record the pre- 

 ceding articles and the following form of agreement, leaving 

 space"for signatures in a record book kept for that and other 

 purposes connected with this association. 



AGREEMENT. 



17. We, the undersigned, agree to abide by the above 

 rules and regulations, and will use our influence to sustain 

 them as long as we are members of this association. 



The undersigned land owners hereby license and grant to 

 the members of the Easthampton Game Club, the exclusive 

 right to hunt upon our respective lands, and allow them to 

 post necessary notices, upon condition that they or their 

 dogs are to do no damage to fences, crops or other property 

 on our respective lands, and that for each partridge, quail, 

 woodcock or gray squirrel killed upon our respective lands, 

 the owner of the land on which the same is killed is to 

 receive ten cents from the club. 



We, however, respectively reserve the right to hunt and 

 allow any guest to hunt on our own lands, and also reserve 

 the right to revoke this license and annul this agreement, as 

 to the club or any of its members by giving written notice 

 to the secretary of the club. 



A Tame Peep. — Chelsea, Mass. — While gunning one 

 morning in the fall of 1884, on a marsh in Everett, I shot a 

 ring-necked peep whose tail feathers were firmly tied to- 

 gether by a piece of cotton cord. The bird was tame and 

 had evidently escaped captivity. The bird calmly pecked 

 away while I emptied three cartridges at him. This is some- 

 thing unusual for a shore bird to do. Perhaps by an allusion 

 to the foregoing in the columns of the Forest aud Stream 

 the ownership of the bird might be brought to light. In ex- 

 planation of my poor marksmanship, I would say that a run 

 in rubber boots just before the shooting had shaken my 

 nerves considerably. — W. H. W. 



Dismal Swamp Bear Promise.— Belvidere, N. C., May 

 24.— A very destructive fire has been for some time raging 

 in the cane brakes of the Dismal Swamp, and the bears and 

 deer are coming out near the shore, where the fire has not 

 burned. Three fine deer were seen last week at play in a 

 field near the swamp, and the bears have begun eating the 

 farmers' pigs. The boys put the hounds in a few days ago 

 and succeeded in killing a very fine young bear. We are 

 looking forward to plenty of sport next fall hunting bruin, 

 as all the back swamp has been thoroughly burned and the 

 berry lands near the shore are still unburned, with the prom- 

 ise of plenty of fruit, and these, with an occasional fat pig, 

 will be sufficient to entice bruin from far and near, — A. F. R. 



Which is the Best Way op Preserving Birds m 

 Warm Weather ? — In Minnesota, during August and Sep- 

 tember, huntsmen draw prairie chickens and wild ducks as 

 soon as possible after shooting them, and fill in the cavity 

 with grass so as to prevent their spoiling. At Cobb's Island, 

 where almost thousands of beach birds are, or used to be, 

 shipped in the hottest weather to Alexandria. Baltimore and 

 Washington, the old gunners will tell you that birds will 



keep longer undrawn and unpicked than in any other way. 



.And in the markets of New York city you see all the poul- 



try picked, but airtight, as they call it. "Old Timer" is 

 glad Dr. Ellzey has no faith in the scent-suppression notion; 

 but he wishes your compositor would follow "copy," and 

 not print fanciful thing for fanciful theory, or slosh for 

 slash. In Virginia a slash is a piece of wet ground on which 

 briers, huckleberry bushes and the like usually grow, thus 

 forming a good hiding place for partridges. And so the 

 slashes of Hanover, historic as the birth place of Henry Clay, 

 is a section of country famous for its yearly crop of frogs, 

 mosquitoes and huckleberries, coons and possums.— Old 

 Timer (Hanover county, Va., May 26). 



A Black Fox.— Escanaba, Mich., May 27.— To-day I saw 

 a young black fox here that was captured a few days since. 

 I should think he is about one-half grown. The tip of the 

 tail is white. He is rather woolly, as the long hair is not yet 

 out.— A F. T. 



So easy to row with Allen's bow-facers. Catalogue free. Oars 

 complete, $8 per pair. Fred A. Allen, Monmouth, 111.— Adv. 



m mid $wer fishing. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ng Co. _ 



CAMPS OF THE KINGFISHERS. 



CARP LAKE, MICHIGAN.— XTV. 



I WAS out in the first gray of the morning to find the 

 promise made good with a cloudless sky of spangled 

 blue, paling at the approach of the glorious sun, who her- 

 alded his coming by a few faint streaks of light, diverging 

 above the treetops across the lake, and soon a rim of fire 

 peeped above the line of green, and as it mounted and showed 

 full and clear and round above, hill and hollow, lake and 

 woodland emerged refreshed and bright from the week of 

 somber storm, each moisture-laden twig and leaf and blade 

 of grass decked out in glittering jewels by the genial rays of 

 the golden morning sun. 



I sat in front of the fly enjoying the scene lost in a dreamy 

 reverie till aroused by the clear, tremulo laugh of a loon away 

 down the lake, rejoicing, I had a conceit, in the fulness of 

 his heart at the gloiious morning following the change of 

 weather and the loveliness of the placid lake with its back- 

 ground of green-clad hills. 



It was a rare picture, full of bright color and mellow tints 

 laid on with nature's deftest touch; a picture to feel thank- 

 ful for, and the loon and I had seemingly drifted into the same 

 channel of thought and were rendering up our homage to 

 the weather god, but each in a different way. 



But the others were missing all this fresh morning air and 

 invigorating sunshine and there was plenty for all. 



Rousing out the philosopher by pulling the blankets off 

 him, we soon had fire going in the stoves and preparations 

 for breakfast under way. Then old Dan and Ben were 

 "pestered" till they agreed to get out as the least of two 

 evils and by the harmless invention that breakfast was 

 ready, and yanking the covers fromMuller and Jim a couple 

 of times and receiving as many blessings (?) in return, they 

 were induced to get up, not, however, without sundry growls 

 and snorts at being disturbed out of their morning nap. 



When old Ben crawled out of the tent he threw his hat in 

 the air with "Hooray, Danny, come out o' that ye old pelican! 

 ef the sun aint up an' a shinin' like a house afire I hope I 

 may never go a-fishin' agin; hooray!" and then he went 

 through another highly edifying sandhill crane dance of 

 brief duration, seemingly as a "blow off" to his overwrought 

 feelings. He was interrupted in the midst of his grotesque 

 caperings by some tittering and talking over in the direction 

 of the "hennery," and this appeared to strike him as a new 

 field where he could "hev a little fun." Picking up a short 

 native fish pole, lying near the water, that had doubtless 

 yanked out many a brave sunfish and striped perch, he 

 made a wide circuit, and tiptoeing up behind the tent where 

 the girls were having the usual morning chattering match, 

 he brought it down on the sloping canvas with a resounding 

 whack, at the same time shouting "breckfust" in a tone that 

 might have been heard half way to Sutton's Bay. Simul- 

 taneous with the whack six feminine screams and squeals, 

 varying little in pitch or intensity, rent the air, and Ben, 

 dropping the fish pole, fled over to the kitchen fly, his face 

 beaming with satisfaction, to relate how he had "skeered 

 them gals into six different kinds o' conniptions." When 

 the commotion in the tent had subsided a voice from within 

 fired a threat of evening up scores after him in the shape of, 

 "Never mind, Hyper [they had shortened him up from 

 Hyperboler to Hyper], you^ll catch it when we come out." 

 But when they came out into the bright sunshine the beauty 

 of the morning drove all thoughts of punishing Hyper out of 

 their minds, and the entertainment was postponed to another 

 day. 



This first appearance of the sun for a week worked a marvel- 

 ous change in the camp, and when all had taken the regular 

 morning wash at the stand near the water and Ben had 

 again yelled breckfust, we gathered around the table with 

 light hearts and smiling faces, the girls looking as rosy as 

 the morning itself, as happy a lot of "old children" as ever 

 surrounded a camp-fire. 



Even old Dan was overheard humming fragments of an 

 ancient ditty as he sat at the head of the table stirring his 

 coffee and beating time against the sides of the china tin cup 

 with his spoon. This unusual burst of melody from the old 

 meadow lark so astonished the family that the table chatter 

 stopped, and as he looked up to ascertain the cause of so 

 much silence, he was overwhelmed with confusion by a peal 

 of laughter and a clapping of hands that fairly turned his 

 head; but old Ben, always loaded for fun, knocked all the 

 music out of him and started the hilarity afresh by remark- 

 ing, in his dry way, "Who ever heerd ov a pelican tryin' to 

 sing before?" 



The philosopher, too, seemed to have struck a better streak 

 in his cookery than usual; the biscuits were lighter, the cof- 

 fee had a more "sarchin' an' appelizin' odor," and the corn 

 bread, baked with an eye to tickling the palate of ye skip- 

 per, was a marvel in its way, albeit the surroundings were 

 not just at hand to give it the true "Texas flavor," to which 

 old Ben laid the affliction of his watery eyes. 



Breakfast over, the first thing necessary was to stretch a 

 couple of clothes lines, a supply of which is always to be 

 found among the "calamities," and frtve the bed clothing a 

 sun bath and a thorough airing, a part of camp work that 

 should be done every day, " 'ceptin' when it rains." A little 

 care in this direction will, as old Ben aptly puts it, "keep yer 



tents from smellin' like a woodpecker's nest;" and our tents, 

 under the six days of almost continuous rain, had begun to 

 give out a somewhat unsavory and musty flavor which could 

 not well be avoided while everything was damp. In half an 

 hour the lines were strung with blankets, quilts, shawls, 

 dresses, etc., and the little cross fence back of the hennery 

 covered with coats, pillows, dirty shirts, old breeches and 

 other gear, all sadly in need of sun and air, and the camp 

 presented the appearance of a general wash day for the whole 

 neighborhood. Lines that had been wet or damp for a week 

 were run off the reels to a stump back in the field and 

 stretched clear of the ground to dry, and about everything 

 movable was spread and hung out to get the benefit of the 

 change o' weather, only the tents and fly being left standing 

 to steam and slack the tension on the guys under the influ- 

 ence of the warm sun rays. 



The philosopher, busy with a general clean up of his de- 

 partment, whistled "voriferously" at a city tune picked up 

 from some stray resorter, the frogs in the menagerie box at 

 the water's edge meantime crowding to the side where the 

 sun slanted in through the wires of their cage to croak a 

 grateful accompaniment to the melody to help swell the 

 measure of general thanksgiving. 



Then, as a reminder that we were wasting the best part of 

 the morning, a kingfisher came flapping slowly down the 

 lake flying low and cleaving with noiseless wing the wisps 

 of soft gray mist that still hung over the water along shore, 

 and with an upward sweep perched with teetering uncer- 

 tainty for a moment on a dead limb reaching over the water 

 a few rods above camp, when with a "good morning" bow 

 he unwound a yard or two of line with the old familiar chat- 

 ter preparatary to a cast in the water below for his morning 

 meal. But the patient fisher was left to his watch for some 

 unwary young perch or shiner to come within reach of his 

 cast, and when at last the camp had been turned inside out, 

 we bethought us it was about time to go a-fishing ourselves, 

 and to this end the boats were drawn up on the bank and 

 emptied of water, tackle overhauled, frogs selected from the 

 box, and in short order the fishing fleet was ready to sail. 



Miss Annie demanded the services of ' 'brother Hen" to 

 furnish motive power for her and little Top. Jim offered 

 himself up a willing victim to Mother Jim and Fanny, and 

 old Dan was made happy when Ben proposed to go out with 

 him "ef he'd do half the rowin'." (With only one arm, old 

 Dan can't row a stroke, but the blessed old soul never gets 

 out of humor about it). 



This arrangement left for the skipper Bob and Kit, and 

 the luxury of a nine miles' pull, for we had been elected to 

 go to Provemont to mail divers and sundry letters written 

 during the "rainy season," bring back mail for the party, 

 and lay in a fresh stock of maple sugar, our supply having 

 unaccountably vanished, leaving nothing but a sweet mem- 

 ory behind. (The twins hazarded the suggestion that the 

 sugar might have been left out and got rained on and melted, 

 and then when they thought the skipper wasn't looking, 

 they slyly nudged each other and looked very solemn and 

 innocent, but the scheme didn't work.) 



But as the skipper was a tireless sort of an old machine at 

 a pair of oars, he didn't mind a pull of ten or a dozen 

 miles unless against a smart headwind, and after the other 

 boats were off, up and across the lake the "mail boat," 

 freighted with "first class matter," the heft of it rep- 

 resented by Bob and Kit, with the skipper as "route agent" 

 in charge, left her wharf with a good stiff ash breeze blow- 

 ing in our favor, which soon wafted us out of sight of camp, 

 around the point below where Kit had taken her first bass. 

 Of course where she had taken one there ought to be another, 

 and as a special favor to her the breeze was allowed to die 

 out while we baited and drifted idly along the rushes for a 

 quarter of a mile, fishing with a patience born of hope for 

 that other bass. But not even a hungry longface was 

 around to start the blood to a quicker flow and the breeze 

 was freshened up a couple of knots till we came to the little 

 bay where the big pickerel had been water-logged and killed 

 with a blow of the paddle on our first trip down. Here the 

 same success attended us as at the point above, and we went 

 on our way, however, still hopeful of better luck and with 

 hearts as light as the fleecy streamers of woods gossamer 

 floating by us on the lazy air. 



As we passed the flaming red maple bush which the girls 

 had partly stripped on our first trip to the P. O., they wanted 

 to be put ashore for another apronful of the bright leaves, 

 and to this end the skipper was plied with entreaties, and 

 plain coaxing, and compliments and cajolery, and finally 

 with dire threats of a one-sided hair-pulling match when we 

 got back to camp ; but as he didn't care much for another 

 lesson in botany he was proof against their entreaties and 

 blandishments, and stood in small fear of the hair pulling, 

 having treated his capillary adornment to a close cut before 

 leaving borne, and being in such good trim to resist attacks 

 of this nature he could afford a grin of satisfaction in antici- 

 pation of the defeat "o' them two gals" when the bah* -pull- 

 ing match should come off. 



Miss Kit simply said, "old contrariness," and Bob, with 

 one of her prolonged and bewildering winks, "wished I 

 wouldn't catch a fish the whole day," and then they lost 

 themselves in a short fit of sulks, but their usual good humor 

 was restored by a trumped up quotation from the "postal 

 laws and regulations" which was twisted into something like, 

 "It shall be unlawful for any person or persons in charge of 

 the U. S. mails to delay the same by stopping or lingering 

 by the wayside to gather a lot of "bresh" with, red leaves on, 

 ferns, cat tails or other flowers," but when Bob struck a fish 

 off the mouth of a little stream a half mile further on a 

 section was readily found in the regulations covering cases 

 of this kind, and the boat was stopped while she gave a dis- 

 play of science in the art, in a tussle with a big-mouthed bass 

 that would have thrown her Uncle Ben into "conniptions." 



In truth, however, Bob was as cool as an old veteran, 

 handling her fish with an earnestness and a grim determin- 

 ation on her usually sunny face that quite won the skipper's 

 heart. 



There had been no word spoken while the fight was going 

 on, but now when the bass was led alongside, she said with 

 the deliberation of speech that was always a reminder of old 

 Ben, "There, James Mackerel ! if you can't catch fish, you 

 can be of some use to Kit and me by getting them in the 

 boat and taking them off the hook." The "sass box!" but 

 that bass managed to even things up as he was lifted in the 

 boat by giving his tail just the required flirt to dash near a 

 half pint of water over Miss Bob, at which James Mackerel 

 consoled himself in a quiet chuckle while bending over the 

 fish to release the hook ; but Bob seemed to have a suspicion 

 that he had a hand in the shower of water that doused her, 

 and I have a dim recollection that she was not far wrong. 

 However, Bob was not an old enough angler to have learned 

 the odd freaks, haas will sometimes get into their beads in. 



