488 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



fJULY 15, 1886. 



FOXHOUNDS AND FOXES, 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I liave bunted foxes in Virginia, New Hampshire and 

 Maine, with a pack in the first-named State and with from 

 one to a half dozen dogs in the other States, and therefore 

 feel that 1 am thoroughly acquainted with the points in con- 

 troversy. Both gentlemen are right as far as their own 

 localities are concerned. The red fox of New England is 

 the same as that of Virginia, and other things being equal, 

 one is as hard to run down as the other. In the autumn in 

 New England before the snow falls, a pack of picked fleet 

 hounds might kill one out of a dozen foxes driven, but 1 do 

 not think it possible for two or three of the best hounds ia 

 the world to do as much, 3imply because our country is full 

 of roads, swamps and ledges, where so much time is lost in 

 keeping the track that the fox gets far ahead, and the dogs 

 can only trail fast, not drive by the body scent. In Virginia 

 they ran over a well wooded or grassed country and never 

 road for hours as they do here. In winter the great masses 

 of ice and constantly drifting snow make following a New 

 England fox next to impossible, unless one has a slow, 

 patient dog that will stick to bis work till the day is done; 

 but, of course, this is not driving in the Virginia sense. The 

 question, as I conceive it, is not one of the kind of dogs 

 needed, but the number used, and the character of the 

 country run over. Virginia dogs do catch red foxes, I have 

 owned them and seen them do it, but the same dogs can't do 

 the same work here, and from past experience I believe it 

 imposcible to successfully run down and catch foxes *tais 

 part of the country. I have a Byron dog from the^ oitoc 

 ous regions of Pennsylvania, that comes neare' - ' • N 

 fox than any dog I have seen in this section, ana 

 year eld. Should he do still better next season, I si <: 

 to get four or five of the same straiu and further tesL 

 question of catching foxes in New England. Foxckaft. 



Ports mouth, N, H. , 



"Red Eye" and "Hounding," of Virginia, and Mr. New- 

 ell, of Massachusetts, are each right as to their own locali- 

 ties. Here in Sullivan county, N. Y., a fox would grin at 

 the notion of being caught "by any dog. Foxes here run 

 from four to forty hours, not without breaks and loss of 

 track. We have good foxhounds; put them in an open 

 country, like the South, and the run would be shorter and 

 the fox caught or holed. As to Col. Tucker's fast bounds, 

 produced as he claims by a cross between native and im- 

 ported strains, we nave plenty of that kind here, and there 

 is no need to sand South for them.— C. F. Kent (Monticello, 

 N. Y.). , 



SOUTHERN HUNTING METHODS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In reading the apparently interminable discussion on the 

 "hounding" and "non-hounding" questions in your columns 

 last winter, and also allusions to fox hunting in northern 

 woods, "Coahoma" was led into some reflections upon the 

 curious contrasts existing between Northern and Southern 

 methods of pursuing certain sports. 



In the South stilbhunting for deer is rarely ever practiced, 

 and for the most part only by "raftsmen" and such prof es- 

 sional woodsmen. 



The common practice with sportsmen, and which is con- 

 sidered legitimate sport, is to hunt the deer in very much the 

 same manner as your fox hunting is described. A party of 

 hunters go out on horseback with a pack of hounds. Each 

 member is provided with a shotgun (rarely ever a rifle) and 

 a blowing horn. One or two of the members "go in the 

 drive ;'* that is, follow and control the hounds. The others 

 are stationed at the various "stands," points where the deer 

 is supposed to be most likely to run by. When a deer is 

 killed by one of the "standers," a long blast is given on his 

 horn to "apprise the other hunters of the fact. Then a new 

 drive is instituted in another locality. 11 the dogs run the 

 game out of the drive without a shot they are recalled by the 

 drivers as soon as practicable and a fresh drive entered upon. 



This method of hunting deer certainly affords delicious 

 sport. There is not a more thrilling experience, than, 

 after hours of waiting suspense, perhaps, to hear the 

 pack in full cry approaching your stand, with the exciting 

 hallooing of the drivers behind them, while you stand tremb- 

 ling with excitement, your gun cocked and at a "ready," in 

 momentary expectation of the quarry bounding into view 

 and in range of your weapon. Or, as frequently happens, 

 the swelling music of the pack (what orchestra or human 

 chorus can equal its effect on your nerves?) will veer off to 

 right or left, and you spring on your hunting pony, who is 

 as full of excitement and interest in the proceedings as 

 yourself, and dash wildly away, leaping over logs and dodg- 

 ing overhanging branches, to "head off" the game at another 

 stand a mile away. But many a long, cold day, from "early 

 da wn to dewy eve" hath this writer stood, or reclined against 

 a tree trunk, vainly waiting in weary solitude for the deer 

 that had pressing business in an entirely different part of the 

 woods, * , . T . . 



This method of deer hunting, as practiced m Louisiana 

 and Mississippi, does not drive the deer permanently away 

 from its accustomed haunts, but the same deer maybe started 

 in the same locality on successive days. The one great evil, 

 however, which attends this sport, and for which there is no 

 palliation, is the frequency with which the deer escapes car- 

 rying with it one or more buckshot, either to die a lingering 

 and unprofitable death, or possibly recover after much suffer- 

 ing, which no true sportsman can contemplate without dis- 

 comfort of mind. 



Fox hunting, on the other hand, is conducted quite differ- 

 ently. Every huntsman is in the "drive," and there is not a 

 gun in the party. If any unreflecting countryman should 

 shoot a fox before the hounds, he would receive the hearty 

 execrations of the whole hunt. 



This different way of viewing the matter in the North and 

 the South is probably due to the comparative scarceness of 

 foxes in the latter region. They are by no means so numer- 

 ous here as they appear to be in the North. Tne sight of a 

 fox in this country except wben put up by the hounds, is an 

 exceedingly rare occurrence, one which this writer has never 

 yet experienced. 



In former years, when Southern planters could afford to 

 indulge in the luxury, fox hunting was a favorite amuse- 

 ment. Pains were taken to select a pack with special view 

 to harmony of voices, and the music which they made when 

 in full cry on a crisp, frosty morning, made the nerves tingle 

 as nothing else could. It was customary to start out a 

 couple of hours before daybreak, and the chase was usually 

 kept up till toward noon, covering a radius of perhaps five 

 miles, the gray fox being the prevailing variety. He was 

 either picked up on the ground, run to earth, or, as was 



most usual, was found in a tree, with the pack baying 

 around, sometimes after five or six hours' chase. 



The writer remembers an occasion when he was a boy of 

 ten years of age, and participated in such a hunt. Soon 

 after setting out, a small beagle bitch started a fox on her 

 own account, and after chasing it alone for several hours, 

 brought it in the vicinity of the main pack, when it was 

 speedily put up a tree. 'Wishing to have some further sport 

 the leader of the hunt called off the pack and directed me to 

 climb up the tree and force the fox to jump out. This I did, 

 but he very soon "treed" again. The same tactics were pur- 

 sued, but the poor creature was so exhausted that it per- 

 mitted me to catch it by the tail and throw it to the ground, 

 when the merciless dogs made short work of it. An Irish 

 friend of mine, who is a considerable railroad and leve~ 

 tractor, who has a good deal of humor about hip' 

 somewhat given to drawing the "long bow," re 

 Ireland on a visit a few years ago, and while there was in- 

 vited to see the "county hounds." The pack consisted of 

 about fifty, and he relates that they were so well trained that 

 the keeper could marshall them in line like soldiers on dress 

 parade, and order them out individually, by name, to a line 

 of platters cortaining food, in their front. 



Not to be outdone, Captain Mike told the keeper that did 

 pretty well for the old country, but was not near equal to 

 the packs We had in America. He said that he had owned 

 a pack himself of one hundred and fifty dogs. The founda- 

 tion for tAue "laim was the fact that he once hue. a levee 

 camp or? our door» af emigrant travel by wagon, from the 

 Slat- it a few days moissippi to Texas, and raultit '^s of 

 .actice our gentle averted the wagon trains and ass- ibled 



was barren of wonde; attracted by the quantities o 

 T'i'qt 'y^hipped the 1 Coah. 

 J ' , "' ' wll >-'"m the b. 



iste 



I see you arc 

 all kinds, and wl 

 tain matters in col..-,. 

 forbids the killing of hi 



:ed by > < i h £ 



SHOOTING. 



I'lestion of spring shooting of 

 ibjject I wish to point out cer- 

 ih the present statute which 

 Dij in the spring. Ex-Senator 



Wagstaff claims, and I believe deserves, the credit of having 

 this law passed, but in so doing did he not get his seasons a 

 little mixed? Earlr^r^'ning and careful study of the alma- 

 nac have left on my"-, -nd the impression that spring con- 

 sists of March, April and May, and that summer includes 

 June, July and August. I have some doubts about March, 

 and think a well-regulated arrangement of the weather 

 would have left that among the wintry months, and so would 

 not mind allowing him to take June in place of it. No one 

 ousrht to quarrel over June, for there is nothing to shoot in 

 that month of the year anyhow. But how did he come to 

 steal the first half of July? The law protects bay birds till 

 July 15. That is just exactly to the middle of summer. 

 Was our enthusiastic and able Senator over thorough, or was 

 he attempting to rehabilitate the laws of the universe as well 

 as the game laws? There always used to be a flight of snipe 

 in the early part of July. The 7th was the conventional 

 date, and then they are on their migration southward, and 

 should be killed if they are ever to be. Why protect them for 

 the benefit of our excellent friends in Jersey who do not even 

 protect the brooding birds in spring? Unless, indeed, the Sen- 

 ator has a shooting box along the Jersey coast, in which case 

 the sooner he invites me to join him there the less 1 will have 

 to say about irregulaiity of times and seasons. Bow much 

 virtue does he expect a New Yorker to be possessed of? 

 There was a splendid flight of big birds the first week of 

 this July, and is the average sportsman to stand idly by and 

 let them go without firing a gun because summer comes 

 sooner than the Senator's almanac had it? I being made of 

 sterner stuff sat on the deck of my yacht and saw the mar- 

 lins go past as many as thirty in a flock and did not kill a 

 single one. To be sure I happened to have left my gun at home, 

 but were it not for this law my gun would noi have been at 

 home. Now I have just written a novel wherein I dilate 

 upon the many delightful attractions and resources of the 

 Great South Bay, its fishing and shooting, but if the men- 

 liaden fishermen are to take thirty thousand bluefish in one 

 haul and twenty tons of weakfish in another, as I am in- 

 formed they have, and dump them almost all into their oil 

 vats, and Senator Wagstaff is to stop the shooting by mistak- 

 ing spring for summer, what will become of my book? I 

 shall either have to suppress the edition or be set down for 

 an exaggerator, a thing that no fishermen can endure. I 

 want therefore particularly to impress upon every one who 

 shall hereafter undertake to prohibit shooting of any sort 

 of birds in their northern migration, that spring is not sum- 

 mer and that summer is not spring, and one of the worst in- 

 juries that can be done to the efficiency of game laws is to 

 make them unreasonable and contrary to the laws of nature. 



Robert Barnwell Roosevelt. 



HOSPITABLE TEXAS. 



THIS is a very paradise of a land, from a sportsman's 

 standpoint, especially to those fond of the pursuit of 

 that crime de la creme of game birds, Bob White. The latter 

 are thick on the creeks in the winter, and the open corn 

 fields, etc., early in the season, in many parts of the State; 

 especially so within a radius of sixty miles of this town. 

 What more exhilarating pleasure can there be than getting 

 up at 5 o'clock in the morning, and with two or three con- 

 genial companions, driving out to one's ground, ready to 

 begin shooting about 8:30 A. M., and lunching at noon. A 

 delightful thing it is to watch a well-bred dog, following all 

 the commands of a competent trainer, noting the wonderful 

 instinct they show when the covey are not there, only alighted 

 and then run on, or with what rigidity of muscle will they 

 stand when the birds are there; how grandly they drop when 

 the birds rise with a "whirr," leaving one or more of their 

 comrades behind them. 1 know of nothing so trying to 

 most men's nerves as the first whirr of a large^ covey, 

 especially if they want to drop a right and left. Shooting 

 quail when once scattered is as distinct from the first flush 

 as killing a deer with a shotgun is different from performing 

 the same feat with a rifle, in my humble opinion. I have 

 shot partridges in the turnips, in England, but I must 

 acknowledge that for downright good shooting, the little 

 "Bob White" takes the palm. He is second only to the far- 

 famed Scotch grouse, or perhaps that wily fellow, the wood- 



C °What a pity it is that we can't get a bill passed prohibiting 

 the netting or trapping of this noble little bird. There are 

 far too many disposed of in this cold-blooded way. What 

 they do it for passes my comprehension, as the price realized 

 in these markets for quail per dozen would hardly pay for 

 the net one would think; and each farmer must have an out- 

 fit of his own, or usually does so. 



The weather becomes nice and cool down here about the 

 end of October. Apropos of cool things, one of the coolest 

 that I have struck down here happened to us last fall. When 

 out shooting we had very carfully placed some bottles of Bass' 

 ale in a cool spot, carefully hidden from the eyes of the 

 vulgar, as we fondly deluded ourselves. However, on get- 

 ting back to camp, dry and thirsty as leeches, to our horror 

 our cool drink had given us the slip and no amount of care- 

 ful searching could reveal its lurking place. We remember 

 those kind, unselfish men to this day. 



Besides quail, we have prairie chickens, all kinds of wild- 

 fowl, s, etc. For the rifle there are deer, antelope and 

 b ••"iple are hospitable and only too pleased to see 

 if of the right stamp; and to the thorough 

 ,f*e who shoots for the sport and not for the dol- 

 ^aiiy welcome is accorded by all the best farmers, 

 jume of the less educated ones have an idea that every man 

 out with a dog and gun means so much out of their own 

 pockets. One farmer remarked to me last year about a 

 certain well-known sportsman down here who has paid large 

 prices for bis dogs: "I say, Mister, how long will it be be- 

 fore M. sells enough birds' to pay for that $1,000 bitch that I 

 hear he has got." 



What can you reply to such a man? Arthur Stert. 



Fort Worth, Texas. 



New York Woodcock Season. — Fort Plain, N. Y., 

 July 8. Editor Forest and Stream: Will you please inform 

 me through Ihe Forest and Stream when the woodcock 

 season opens in this State? As I understand it it is Aug. 1, 

 and is generally so understood here and the shooters here are 

 all making calculations on shooting woodcock Aug. 1. But 

 a few claim the law was changed to Sept. 1 this summer. 

 Will you please ascertain and let me know, as I do not want 

 to shoot woodcock before it is lawful to. Furthermore I 

 saw myself that a bill had passed the Legislature changing 

 he time to Sept. 1, but have not seen anything of it since. 



am in hope the law has changed to Sept. 1, and the major- 

 ih of the sportsmen here think as I do, for we all know that 

 ni, g out of ten men who go shooting woodcock in August 

 she J, more or less ruffed grouse, or "short-bills." as they 

 call "them, and the summer hotels all buy ruffed grouse in 

 August and say they prefer them, but call them short-bills. 

 If the law has changed I think you should make it prominent 

 in your -valuable paper, as I know a great many depend on 

 it for such information, at least I do. — A. W. B. [The sea- 

 son was orrectly given in our last issue in list of open game 

 seasons.] 



News of the Camping Clubs. — Wellsville, 0., July 

 9. — Editor Forest and Stream: Two special cars attached to 

 the mail train and placarded "East Liverpool Camping 

 Clubs, 1886," passed through here on the 2d ult. en route to 

 Way nesburgh, O., near which place they have selected a 

 spot for their anuual encampment. This section of country 

 is noted for an abundance of game and its pretty women, so 

 that a good time, both piscatorially and socially, for the 

 boys is insured. A full fledged brass band accompanies 

 them, but it is to be hoped they will be muzzled after arriv- 

 ing in the woods. The Geo. Weaver Fishing Club of Roch- 

 ester, Pa , bound for Michigan; Pittsburgh Recreation Club, 

 en route to Waynesburg, O., and the Pioneer Club going 

 down the Ohio River passed through here this week with 

 all the paraphernalia incidental to the art of castrametation. 

 They anticipate having a good time.— Buz. 



Doves in New Jersey.— Monmouth, N. J., July 2.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: Is there no law for the protection 

 of doves in this State? If not I think it would be well for 

 some of our leading sportsmen to bring the matter to the 

 attention of the Legislature next winter. If something is not 

 done, dove shooting will soon be athirg of the past in this 

 part of the State, it has been customary to wait until after 

 harvest and shoot them when they come in to feed in the 

 stubble (which I think is too early). But some have been 

 shooting them all through the month of June this year, also 

 in the winter when the ground is covered with snow and 

 they come to barnyards and grain stacks after food. I think 

 that I am as fond of shooting as any one, but am willing that 

 all should have a chance. Would be glfid to have the opinion 

 of sportsmen on this subject.— Fair Plat. 



Massachusetts.— South Duxbury, Mass., July 8.— Fall 

 shooting promises to be the best this season it has been for 

 years. "Quail are very plenty and can be heard in all direc- 

 tions, four to one compared to last year. Partridges are 

 plenty, too, I found six bevies on my travels last Sunday; 

 thev were about a third grown. Woodcock are never plenty 

 here as it is dry and sandy, not enough meadow ground. I 

 have seen several lately past at sunset in the low ground, one 

 was the largest I ever saw.— South Shore. 



Pennsylvania — Erie, July 5. —Woodcock are very 

 plenty around here now, but I am sorry to say a great many 

 young birds were bagged before the season was open. The 

 bass fishing was very poor this spring, owing to the pound- 

 nets being on the bass ground, but we hope with the assist- 

 ance of our assemblyman and State senator to have the 

 pound nets done away with. There are several large broods 

 of young ducks around, but the pot-hunters are killing them 

 off when they can get a chance.— J. M. 



New York Game Constables —Glens Falls, N. Y., July 



1 —Mitor Forest and Stream: Have you noticed that Sec. 



2 of Chap 429, of laws of 1886, provides that: "Game con- 

 stables, constables, sheriffs aud deputy sheriffs shall have 

 the same powers as are conferred upon game protectors tor 

 the enforcement of the provisions of Chap. 534 of the laws 

 of 1879 and the amendments thereto, and shall be entitled to 

 the same fees therefor." — A. N Cheney. 



New Hampshire.— Colebrook, July 12.— Trout have been 

 taken in great numbers, but the recent hot weather has sent 

 them in search of colder water, where they will be better 

 secreted They have diminished some from unlawful and 

 unsportsmanlike methods of capture in certain localities 

 where law does not avail.— Ned Norton. 



The Prlngle Snipe Score. — A correspondent tells us that 

 the snipe shooting by Air Pringle, of Louisiana, concerning 

 which inquiries were made in these columns recently oc- 

 curred in the month of February, at Bayou Teche, La. Gun, 

 breechloader; load, 3± drams powder, 1 1-6 ounces JSo. * 

 shot; time, 6 hours; number of snipe killed, 300. 



