388 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



one evidently left for a safe country as I beard nothing more 

 of him. I took my dead turkey and went off in the direc- 

 tion Mr. P. had taken. I soon met him coming toward me. 

 He said he had heard a turkey gobbling near him. but could 

 not call it up a9 he was a poor hand at calling. We moved 

 off across a hollow and over the wet ridge, when we heard 

 another gobbling off to the south of us. We went around 

 the point of a hill toward him, and having the hill between 

 us and him we succeeded in getting near enough for him to 

 hear me call, so we prepared ourselves for him and I under- 

 took to call him up so that Mr. P. could get a shot. After 

 answering me several times he seemed to be coming nearer, 

 and finally we could hear him strut and drag his wines just 

 around the point of the hill from us. Tbere was an old pine 

 turned out by the roots not more than thirty yards before us, 

 and soon he stepped out from behind this' root into plain 

 view. Mr. P. fired one barrel and the turkey rolled over, 

 but got his wings spread and started to fly, the steep hillside 

 giving him a good start. But Mr. P. gave him the other 

 barrel before he had fully got under way, and he fell and 

 rolled and flopped down the hill to the bottom, where we 

 found him feet up, dead. 



We were both now well satisfied to go back to camp, 

 where we found Mr. L. with a fine gobbler hung up before 

 the tent. He immediately asked me if that was my rifle he 

 heard about five minutes after he shot! 1 told him it was, 

 and asked if he killed his turkey outright or if he had to run 

 it down before he got it. He said the turkey managed to 

 flop off a little piece, but he had him in hand when he heard 

 my shot. So we decided that he had won the hat by about 

 two minutes and a half. 



We dressed one of the turkeys and cooked breakfast, and 

 after waiting some time for Joe ate our share and put his by 

 the fire to keep warm. Joe did not return until nearly 10 

 o'clock, and we had become really concerned about him. 

 He said he had heard the report of our guns and was deter- 

 mined he would not come back empty-handed if he could 

 help it; but luck was against him this time, as he did not get 

 a shot at anything. "But," said he, "I'll get even with the 

 rest of you before the week is up," which prediction he ful- 

 filled to his satisfaction. We spent a portion of each day in 

 hunting, aside from our morning's trip, but the woods were 

 so open that we were not very successful in getting any game 

 in the daytime. 



Thursday morning was clear and still and delighfully 

 warm, and every gobbler in the woods seemed determined to 

 make the most noise. At one time I could hear four differ- 

 ent turkeys gobbling in as many different directions. I suc- 

 ceeded in calling up and killing one before the sun was 

 fairly up; then changed my position, so as to call for Mr. P. 

 again. I commenced to call and two came from opposite 

 directions. I fixed myself to shoot one and Mr. P. the other. 

 Mr. P. 's came within shooting distance first and he fired, 

 killing his. The other turned to run and I fired, but missed 

 him. He arose and flew across a hollow in front of us, 

 alighting on the other side, and started to run up the hill. I 

 had another cartridge in the rifle by the time he struck the 

 ground. He was fully one hundred yards away, but could 

 not run very fast up the hill. I fired again, hitting him in 

 the back, and he came tumbling down the hill toward us. 

 Joe came into camp this morning also bringing two turkeys. 

 Mr. L was the unlucky one this morning, he having got a 

 shot, but did not kill his turkey. 



Friday morning was cloudy and windy again, and Joe 

 was the only one of us who brought in a turkey. Friday 

 evening our teamster arrived, and we made preparations for 

 our last hunt in the morning. Saturday morning was clear 

 and stdl. Joe and Mr. L. each got a turkey. Mr. P. and I 

 did not meet with success this morning. We did not hear 

 but one gobbler, and he had found other company before we 

 got nearenough to him to call. We got within sight of him 

 and a hen, but they saw us and flew before we were within 

 shooting distance. The proceeds of our hunt were eleven 

 turkeys, Joe killing four, Mr. P. and Mr. L. two each, and 

 I three. Lew Willow. 



Arkansas. 



THE ELUSIVE BLUE GROUSE. 



II. — IN THE THICKETS OF THE MUSSELSHELL, 



THE sun's first rays, peeping through the open door of our 

 log cabin, banished all thought of sleep for that day. 

 Springing from under the warm blankets with a sigh of regret, 

 Jack Miller and I hastily pulled ourselves together, and our 

 boots on the wrong feet, of course, as we always did when 

 in a hurry. After an exchange of prisoners had been effected, 

 we finished our simple toilet, and raced over to the cabin 

 serving us for a kitchen, dining-room and drawing-room 

 combined. 



As we ran the keen, bracing and invigorating air made us 

 feel like race horses with sinews of steel, while the thick 

 October frost was ground into diamond dust by our heavy 

 riding boots. 



Bursting into the kitchen, we found cook busily making 

 baking powder rolls and frying salt pork and potatoes, which 

 merrily sputtering over the fire strongly appealed to my 

 ravenous appetite. 



Jack and I were spending a year on our Montana cattle 

 rancb. This ranch is situated ou the Musselshell River, and 

 consists of four roughly-built cabins with a stable, all having 

 mud roofs, and a few miles of superb pasturing land under 

 fence. We had about eight thousand cattle on the range, 

 and eighty horses for round up purposes and daily use. 



The penetrating smell of breakfast soon brought out of 

 their shack our six men, but half awake, with tousled heads 

 and disordered clothes. But a turn at the only wash bowl 

 and towel of which the ranch could boast, soon transformed 

 them into as many handsome cowboys, all perfect specimens 

 of their class. They were each known by some curious 

 soubriquet, and were quite a peaceable set of fellows when 

 not full of bad whisky. 



Finishing a meal of a size to make an Eastern man pale 

 with horror, one of the boys rode alter the horses feeding in 

 the pasture a little distance away. He soon appeared, driv- 

 ing them before his circling lariat into the corral. There we 

 lassoed and saddled our favorite hunters, and, slipping guns 

 into slings, galloped off to wage war upon the grouse. 



At this season the favorite retreats of mountain or blue 

 grouse, as they are sometimes called, are thickets of young 

 cottonwood along the river bottoms, in which grow many 

 kinds of berries and roots. The young birds, fully fledged 

 by this time, become very fat and juicy, affording excellent 

 sport for both gun and palate. 



There was a large tract of land covered with these thickets 

 about seven miles down the river from the ranch; for this we 

 now set out. A pleasant ride brought us to it, and selecting 

 a promising spot, we picketed the horses with, a lariat. 



Our grouse is a noble game bird, It is about twice the 

 size of a partridge, much swifter on wing, and more deli- 

 cately flavored. Their plumage assumes a dull gray tint at 

 a little distance, corresponding so closely to the color of 

 brush that it is almost impossible to distinguish them until 

 they dart from under your very feet. In summer, when 

 flushed, they go but a little way and then settle down until 

 again disturbed later on. However, a mile is no long flight 

 when they are thoroughly frightened. Some of their habits 

 resemble very closely those of the domestic fowl. They are 

 extremely fond of rolling and scratching in loose eartlu and 

 always cackle when excited exactly like a hen. It is terri- 

 bly annoying to bear them all around you and not to be able 

 to catch the least glimpse of one on the ground. 



I had scarcely torn my way through a thickly woven mass 

 of wild currants and rose bushes, when whirr — whirr — 

 whin-r-r, up darted five grouse. Quickly throwing up my 

 gun, I emptied both barrels at this covey, and had the satis- 

 faction of seeing two of them fall. Securing these I slipped 

 a couple of fresh shells into my smoking gun and pushed 

 ahead. 



About this time Jack made a very fine shot, deserving 

 mention, as it is seldom accomplished. He was a little ahead 

 and about fifty yards to the right, when three birds were 

 flushed. Killing two with the right barrel, he dropped the 

 third with his left, in very pretty style. 



Shooting a good many grouse on the way we finally 

 emerged from the tangled undergrowth, to find the Mussel- 

 shell rippling at our feet. A herd of deer drinking from the 

 shelving bank opposite vanished like phantoms through the 

 brightly tinted bushes, leaving no proof of their reality, save 

 delicate prints on the yielding sand. 



The sight that met our eyes was too beautiful to describe. 

 Like a band of burnished silver, winding in and out between 

 bristling cliffs and spurs of the ancient mountains, ran our 

 tiny river. Here and there, dotting; its placid surface, lay 

 flocks of ducks and geese, welcoming each newly arriving 

 comrade with wild and musical cries of delight. Tall cotton- 

 wood trees lined either bank, over the tops of which could 

 be seen the white-haired Srjowies, seemingly separated from 

 our touch by a light veil of haze. 



The impatient neighing of our ponies dispelling a reverie 

 which had stolen over us, we snatched up our game and 

 took the shortest cut to them, finding they had eaten up 

 everything within range. Springing into the saddle we went 

 to another place also frequented by grouse. There we found 

 them in abundance, and shooting until ammunition gave 

 out suspended operations for the day. 



We must have presented a funny appearance riding home 

 with necklaces of grouse, gamebags full of grouse, and 

 grouse hanging from every conceivable place. Our bag was 

 as follows: Jack's shooting 21 birds and 1 25 made a total of 

 46 grouse. 



Arriving home before dinner time, we dressed half of our 

 game, and had a hard time to get them all in the oven at 

 once. The reader will not believe me when I say those 46 

 grouse disappeared in three meals. W. S. S. 



NOTES FROM THE NORTH WOODS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Having just returned from a two-weeks camping out in 

 the Adirondacks. I will give a short account of how things 

 looked there this spring from a sportsman's point of view. 

 First, the winter has been unusually mild and the spring un- 

 usually early, hence game has wintered well and prospects 

 for fall hunting are very good. Our camp was on the high- 

 est waters of Hamilton county and twenty fi ve miles from the 

 nearest house. Within a mile water flowed into Cedar River, 

 thence into the Upper Hudson, Moose River, thence through 

 Black to St. Lawrence rivers, and also through West Canada 

 Creek to the Mohawk, showing us to be on the water shed 

 of the Wilderness. The mountains about us there are locally 

 known as the Blue Ridge, and being so inaccessible are the 

 great breeding place of deer. A large pack of wolves now 

 stay in this section, and if they keep on increasing the State 

 should offer sufficient bounty to insure their extinction, as 

 they kill more game than the sportsmen. One of our guides, 

 a trapper who lives all winter in said mountain, came oh a 

 pack of twelve wolves that had a buck down, last March. 

 He drove them off, but the deer's throat was cut. He 

 skinned out a quarter, which, with bis peltries, made quite 

 a load on snow shoes, and went to his winter camp about oue 

 and one-half miles away. He returned for more meat in less 

 than two hours, but found the bones only, the wolves having 

 made short work of what he had left. Having his rifle this 

 time, he tried to get a shot at the rascals, but they were too 

 shy. He says that the hawks, owls and foxes were very 

 destructive of partridges the past winter, and hardly a day 

 passed that he did not find their feathers on the snow and 

 evidences of their sanguinary taking off. 



In felling a tree ninety feet back of our camp, a partridge 

 was scared from her nest in which we found eleven eggs. 

 She came back toward evening and afterward was so tame 

 that every day the boys would watch her with interest. 

 Squirrels are very numerous there this spring. A guide 

 caught a young one which we soon tamed and had around 

 camp while there. Hedgehogs prowling around nights fur- 

 nished a chance for fusilades that awoke the tenderfeetin the 

 party with novel sensations. In going in we had to leave 

 part of our supplies at Pillsbury Lake (named after the new 

 warden of Blackwell's Island, a true sportsman, by the way). 

 The guides going back for the duffle next day found that a 

 bear had been there before them, and had made away with 

 the bacon, left his teeth marks in the soap bars, tore open 

 and scattered the crackers and flour, and raised Cain gener- 

 ally. But we found fish so plenty that we did not miss our 

 loss. Bears are very numerous and will furnish excellent 

 sport for hunters this fall. Deer are very plenty, and can be 

 readily seen by daylight anywhere in that section. 



We had an Al cook in "Honest" John Plumley, of Long 

 Lake (as Murray's book calls him), and the increased avoir- 

 dupois of every one in the party shows, what good cooking 

 and camp fife can do for any one that is sensible enough to 

 try it. 



I am glad to learn through your valuable paper that the 

 Rhinelander estate has got into hands that will help enforce 

 our game laws. I do not believe in large estates in Amer- 

 ica, but the good results of Dr. Brandreth's owning a six 

 miles square township north of Raquette is known to all 

 familiar with the Woods. I have fished and hunted all over 

 the Rhinelander estate, and know that if in the right men's 

 hands it is a grand thing for the south part of Adirondacks 

 and a sure place for sport for its owners. 



We all feel that we have secured a new lease of life by 

 our trip, and that with renewed energy we can in business 



easily make up for the time spent so gloriously on the lakes 

 and streams of the North Woods. M. S. Northrop. 



Johnstown, N. Y., May 81, 1886. 



Mr. P. H. Apgar, of Syracuse, who has been an annual 

 visitor to the North Woods for thirty-five years, writes from 

 Number Four to a home paper: "Governor Seymour was 

 well-known to many people here, and his sudden death was 

 a shock to them. Years ago he was a frequent visitor to the 

 Wilderness, and he could tell many tales of his adventures 

 during these excursions which were always made in the win- 

 ter season. He used to say that the winter months were the 

 best time to see the Wilderness; that then there was far 

 more to be learned of the habits and character of the animals 

 than in summer, that the proper time for hunting and trap- 

 ping was after the snow fell. He had no passion for angling, 

 and was no expert huntsman and paid little attention to 

 either; but he liked to study the habits of the game that 

 abounded in the Wilderness. He would occasionally shoot a 

 deer, and once killed a moose, said to have been the last one 

 ever seen in these woods, although hunters thereabouts claim 

 to have crossed their tracks within the last five or ten years. 



"What remained of the moose were mostly, if not alto- 

 gether, destroyed bythe last generation of hunters, and the deer 

 will be exterminated by the same methods before the close 

 of the present generation, if the Legislature continues to play 

 with this question as it is now doing. A year ago it passed 

 an act prohibiting the hounding of these animals at all sea- 

 sons; this session it so amended the act as to legalize the 

 practice between the 1st of September and the 5th o£ October. 

 Other parts of the act are so framed as to give the hounders 

 a virtual monopoly of the slaughter. No "floating" is per- 

 mitted until the middle of August, which in effect prohibits 

 that method of hunting, for deer seldom come to the water 

 at so late a period, and after hounding opens, of course, 

 floating would be a ridiculous formality. No deer can be 

 killed in any way after Nov. 1, and this is also a prohibition 

 against "still-hunting" — the only method of hunting those 

 animals which is justified by the rules of true sportsmanship. 

 So, if the law is enforced, the result, as before stated, will be 

 to render the drivers complete masters of the field, with 

 power to slay the deer ad libitum. Everybody who is ex- 

 perienced in woodcraft knows that the bounding of deer is 

 the surest and most effective means of destruction yet in- 

 vented. Floating, crusting and trapping are harmless pas- 

 times compared with the death-dealing practice of hounding. 

 The main support of the new law came from the northeastern 

 part of the Wilderness, where the deer have been nearly ex- 

 terminated by hounding, and where venison can be no longer 

 obtained to any considerable extent either by hounding or 

 any other method of capture. The principal operations of 

 the hounders will now be transferred to the Beaver River, 

 the Fulton Chain and the Oswegatchie, where the deer have 

 had some chance for their lives, and where very few were 

 slaughtered last year. Any one who may come upon these 

 waters in September will be regaled day and night during 

 that month with the music of the hounds, and will be enabled 

 to estimate for himself the extent of the bloody work which 

 will then be in progress under the sanction of law. 



"The passage of the new act has caused no little hubbub 

 throughout the Wilderness, particularly in the western por- 

 tion. It is the universal topic everywhere, and will continue 

 so until some change is made or the act wholly repealed. 

 Everybody here, guides and others, are hostile to the meas- 

 ure, and will place all legal obstacles in the way of its en- 

 forcement. Already steps have been taken to combine all 

 parties against the hounding of deer on the waters of the 

 Beaver River, and the same course will be taken on the Ful- 

 ton Chain and Oswegatchie. On Monday evening last a 

 meeting of persons interested in the matter was held at the 

 house of S. B. Edwards, which was attended by about 

 twenty individuals. C. W. Puffer presided and Charles 

 Griffith acted as secretary of the meeting. After an ani- 

 mated discussion it was unanimously resolved that a society 

 be formed for the purpose of discouraging in every proper 

 way the hounding of deer under the law, and of using their 

 best efforts for the repeal of the obnoxious measure. The 

 society having been duly organized, chose officers for the 

 first year as follows: President, Josepn C. Dunbar; Vice- 

 Presidents, Mark Smith, Charles H. Smith, James Lewis, 

 John Hitchcock, Charles W. Puffer, S. B. Edwards and 

 William R. iSmith; Secretary, Charles Griffith; treasurer, 

 Charles Fenton. A paper was then presented and adopted 

 pledging the members of the society and others whose sig- 

 natures may be obtaiued to discountenance and oppose by 

 all lawful means the practice of hounding. The paper was 

 ordered printed for general circulation. It is quite safe to 

 conclude that the 'deerslayers' will find a cool reception 

 along the waters of the Beaver River this fall. 



"Mr. Fenton is still engaged in enlarging his house for the 

 accommodation of summer guests at Number Four. He 

 has lately removed the 'little red house' to a new location 

 and converted it into a cottage, and is building a two-story 

 house in its place to be ready for occupation this season. 

 He is also building a boat house at the landing on Beaver 

 Lake of sufficient'size to accommodate twenty-five or thirty 

 boats." 



Montreal, June 1. — The Fish and Game Protection 

 Club of the Province of Quebec, which was organized in 

 February, 1859, has just been incorporated. It is admitted 

 by all that it is one of the strongest organizations of its kind 

 on this continent, and counts among its members some of 

 the leading men of the country. The act of incorporation 

 reads as follows: Granted under the provisions of the Act 

 48 Vic, chap. 12, entitled "An act to facilitate the forma- 

 tion of Fish and Game Protection Clubs in the Province." 

 By virtue of an order in Council No. 194, approved by His 

 Honor the Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Quebec, 

 on the 20lh day of May, 1886, M. M. George, H. Matthews, 

 John Nelson, Jr., William H. Rintoul, Louis Alphouse . 

 Boyer, William H. Atwater, Edward B. Goodacre, George 

 U Ahern, Hubert Root Ives, Isaac H. Stearns, Jas. Sleasor, ~~ 

 Ernest Lacroix, Andrew Dawes, H. W. King, Thomas C. 

 Brainerd, C. de Salaberry, Robert McKay, A. N. Shewan, 

 all of the city of Montreal in the said Province, and others 

 marked in the schedule hereto annexed (over 300). And all 

 other persons who are now or who may hereatter become 

 members of the club incorporated in virtue of the said order 

 in Council, aTe hereby constituted a body corporate and 

 politic under the name of "Fish and Game Protection Club 

 of the Province of Quebec." The act of incorporation was 

 obtained through the indefatigable exertions of Mr. Selkirk 

 Cross, who spared neither time nor labor in his endeavors to 

 place the Fish and Game Protection Club of Montreal upon 

 a sound and legal basis. 



