250 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sept. 21, 1895. 



A PIGEON DAY PRANK. 



Lincoln, Neb., Sept. 4.— In Forest and Stream of 

 Aug. 17 I read Everett's experience in killing wild 

 pigeons, which took me back to fifty years ago, when I 

 was a mere lad just starting to learn to shoot. I was 

 living on a farm and we had an old single-barrel gun 

 with a homemade beach stock full length of barrel, and 

 fastened together with brass bands. I had been forbidden 

 to use the gun, as they thought I was too young to shoot, 

 but I had been taking notes of how it was done. One day 

 I saw a large flock of pigeons trying to light on a shock of 

 wheat. I made for the house, got the gun and crept 

 along an old rail fence until I got within about 30yds. of 

 them. The shock was literally blue with them, and 

 others were trying to light on top of them. I poked the 

 old gun through the rails and turned her loose, then I 

 dropped the gun and got over the fence some way, but I 

 do not know how. My first impulse was to gather the 

 wounded, as I thought the dead could take care of them- 

 selves. "When I got through gathering them up I had 

 twenty-four dead pigeons; and had to call for help to 

 carry them, as they were more than I could manage at 

 once. That was the third shot I had ever fired out of a 

 gun. I came to the conclusion that I was the champion 

 shot of America. 



I can remember away back in the 40s when Burlington 

 Heights, near the city of Hamilton, Ont., in the morning 

 was more like a a battlefield than anything else. The 

 heights are several hundred feet above the bay; the 

 pigeons used to follow the bay and rise over the heights, 

 which were at that time covered with low scrubby oak. 

 Sometimes five or six shots would be fired into one flock 

 and then there would be a scramble for the birds; and 

 many a fight occurred over gathering them. A good 

 retriever could get more birds than a man with a gun. 



I recall rather an amusing incident that happened 

 away back in the 40s. At that time in Canada the law 

 was that every able-bodied man had to train or drill in 

 the militia once a year. Each township would meet at a 

 place appointed to train; and it was in the spring, about 

 the time the pigeons were flying. A farmer by the name 

 of Jake Upthegrove lived in the pines on the bank of the 

 Humber. On the morning of training day Jake thought 

 that he would take his old musket, as he might get a 

 shot at some pigeons along the road, as he was going or 

 coming back from training. So he got on one of his 

 horses, put the musket over his shoulder and started for 

 the training ground, four or five miles from his farm, at 

 a place near Montgomery Tavern on the Dundass Pike. 

 When he got there he rode up to the tavern and told one 

 of the bartenders to take care of his gun until after train- 

 ing was over. When he got through he mounted his horse 

 and rode up to the tavern and told them he would take 

 his gun. During his absence they had withdrawn the 

 load, taken the powder out of the pan and filled up the 

 old musket with a load of powder and a wad of dry punk 

 until they had her full to the muzzle. Before giving him 

 the gun they lit the top wad of punk. He shouldered his 

 musket and started for home. He had not gone far when 

 bang went the gun. That frightened his horse and 

 while he was trying to hold the horse and hang on to the 

 gun, bang she went again. That made the horse worse. 

 His hat flew off, and while trying to get in shape, bang 

 she went again. That was too much for him, so he let the 



Cdrop over behind on to the pike, and putting both 

 ds to his horse so he could get him, he faced round at 

 a respectable distance from the gun. After it had fired a 

 few more shots he said the devil was in the gun and 

 whirled round and put for home, leaving the gun laying 

 on the pike, firing every few seconds. In the meantime 

 the crowd had gathered round the gun at a respectable 

 distance. No one dare go near it until it had shot itself 

 out and was lying quiet when some one older than the rest 

 ventured and pickea it up. The whole crowd wanted to 

 examine it, they could not make out how a single-barrel 

 gun could fire thirty or forty shots with no one near it. 

 If those parties could have kept a secret it might never 

 have been known, but it spoiled Jake's pigeon shooting 

 for that day. W. H. 



RANGE FOR GAME SHOOTING. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



If another Dick may join in this good-natured discus- 

 sion of the proper shooting range for game, I would like 

 t» say a few words. 



Tiam will probably ask me, as he did Dick of Connecti- 

 cut, whether I ever shot a moose; let me anticipate the 

 question by replying that I never shot a moose; I never 

 Baw a wild mooBe. I make no claim of having done so, 

 and my notion is that in his catechism of Dick of Con- 

 necticut on this personal point Tiam has imported into 

 the discussion matter which is irrelevant, incompetent 

 and immaterial. 



The question at issue is whether shooting at long 

 ranges, where the result was almost Bure to be a maimed 

 or cruelly wounded animal, and the loss thereby of much 

 valuable food, was sportsmanlike or justifiable. D. of C.'b 

 skill as a shot or mine, or whether I have killed a moose 

 or not, is of no importance in this connection. Still, to 

 pacify Tiam's curiosity, I will say that I have shed much 

 gore, and instead of being the beginner which he more 

 than hintB I am, and which I heartily wish I were, I 

 have passed the stage of inexperience by many years. 



But I would ask to call hiB attention to the fact that 

 there are certain general principles of sportsmanship 

 which are recognized as good regardless of the kind of 

 game shot. It is not necessary to murder a man before 

 one knows that murder iB wrong, nor is it necessary to 

 slaughter a moose to learn what constitutes humane prin- 

 ciples and public rights. Moreover, there are certain 

 standards set up by public opinion and common usage 

 which are something of a guide, and are considered as 

 paramount to the aggressive selfishness of the individual 

 who endeavors to get more than his share, or who wan- 

 tonly wastes and destroys. 



Tiam pleadB that in firing at the fleeing moose 200yds. 

 away in bushes, he was firing with a reasonable certainty, 

 as he had diligently practiced that kind of Bhooting; yet 

 the fact is only the better demonstrated that the range 

 was uncertain, since with all his skill the moose was 

 wounded and lost. Mortally wounded, the noble animal 

 struggled into the forest and perished, aud why? Because 

 Tiam had a desire to kill something. In this connection 

 he says: 'Again, is the aim of the sportsman in this part 

 of the country to shoot game for food? In this part of 

 the country it is the lumbermen and market-hunters who 



shoot their game for food purposes. Whenever Nova 

 Scotia sportsmen go hunting they take sufficient food 

 from home," etc. 



Tiam clearly implies that the sportsman sallies forth to 

 kill moose for the mere gratification of killing. That is 

 not sportsmanship; it is slaughter. If it is sportsman- 

 ship, then the tiger and wolf have true sporting instincts. 



Tiam recounts that men have spent season after season 

 and year after year trying for moose, and then he asks, 

 "Must they for the sake of being humane and sportsman- 

 like refrain from shooting unless they are absolutely sure 

 of their Bhot?" Here Tiam works in a bit of fallacy. 

 There is no such thing as absolute sureness, but there is a 

 wide difference between a reasonable certainty and a wild 

 chance which may result many more times in wounding 

 and loss than in success. A sportsman is a sportsman or 

 he is not. There are certain limits and boundaries to all 

 extremes, and it is not necessary to drag extremes in to 

 prove a simple question. 



I.think that Tiam makes the grave error of setting up 

 the individual likeB and dislikes, etc., of the man as the 

 true doctrine. If a man were to seek for moose year after 

 year for a hundred years, if he is a sportsman he should 

 not violate the precepts of sportsmanship whether he saw 

 one moose in that time or a million. 



There are some important considerations in this matter 

 which Tiam has not considered at all. All animals, ferae 

 natural, are the property of the people. While each in- 

 dividual has the privilege of taking these animals, there 

 is a prevailing, unwritten, universal law which rules that 

 he should not take more than his share. The odium cast 

 on the market-hunter and pot-hunter is not that they kill 

 the birds for market or for the pot, but that they take 

 more than they are individually entitled to, and take 

 what belongs to others; for the wild game is the property 

 of the people and not of the individual. 



So universally has this unwritten law been accepted 

 that it has been made more specific by statutory acts; 

 thus in many States a shooter is restricted to a certain 

 number of chickens or grouse in a day, or a certain num- 

 ber of elk, moose, deer, etc., in a Beason, or fish of not 

 less than certain lengths, etc., and some States pro- 

 hibit killing entirely, all of which goes to show 

 the property interest of the game is in the people. 

 No man has a right to wantonly kill game. He 

 must have an ulterior purpose to use the game 

 usefully for food. The pot-hunter takes his game regard- 

 less of manner. He will kill a bevy on the ground at one 

 shot. He will murder a deer with a club when the snow 

 aids his purpose. The true sportsman should have the 

 pot in mind, but the manner is what makes the sports- 

 man. He shoots his birds on the wing; he shoots his 

 moose under proper conditions; he regards the property 

 rights of others in the wild animals and does not wan- 

 tonly shoot animals to rot. To shoot a mooBe for the sake 

 of a head only may or may not be sportsmanlike. After 

 all. it is largely a matter of convention. 



Tiam, with great candor, says he did not confess, he 

 stated facts. A true confession is made up of facts. It 

 might be a fact that he shot and wounded a moose out of 

 fair range, and at the same time it might be a confession 

 of unsportsmanlike conduct. Another Dick. 



MORE TESTIMONY ABOUT THOSE 

 ALASKA DUCK EGGS. 



Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 9.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I am a regular reader of your publication. I do 

 not think that age, profession or condition should de- 

 prive any American of an interest in the fish of the 

 American seas, lakes, river or brooks, or the game of the 

 American forests. I lack but a year and a half of being 

 ninety years old, having been born March 1, 1807, and I 

 can read with or without glasses. I am at my office and 

 desk (after riding three miles) soon after 9 o'clock, and 

 remain there until 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon. I still 

 write my own daily journal and do most of my corre- 

 spondence, and I receive a very large bundle of daily and 

 weekly papers, though many of these I do not have time 

 to read. But the Forest and Stream never remains un- 

 read, even if I have to sit up nights to read it, which I 

 frequently do. 



My object in writing this communication is to tell 

 you of my late trip to the great Alaska country, and also 

 to say a few words upon the great birds' egg trade, upon 

 which there is so much written in the Forest and 

 Stream. I was accompanied on my trip by Messrs. 

 George Q. Cannon, Joseph F. Smith and Ovando Beebe, 

 and with our families we made a party of sixteen. We 

 Sailed on the Willapah with Captain Roberts, who was 

 exceedingly kind and accommodating to us. We were 

 fourteen days on board, and we visited all the glaciers 

 and settlements which are generally visited upon these 

 Voyages, including also a visit to the greatest stamp mill 

 in the West for crushing gold ore, running 240 stamps at 

 the same time, using a low grade ore. The ore is blasted 

 out of a mountain or ledge of earth near the mill, with 

 giant powder, the explosions occurring every few 

 moments. A. person might as well try to talk in the 

 midst of 240 claps of thunder as to talk by the side of that 

 stamp mill, the noise being so very great. 



The gl tck rs were very interesting, the towers of ice 

 rising perpendicularly out of the water some 200ft., and 

 being 800ft. under the water. Great blocks weighing 

 hundreds of tjns fall from these glaciers every few mo- 

 menta, mak k ng a noise like thunder. These blocks form 

 the icebergs louiul in the Atlantic Ocean. We visited the 

 various settlemrnis and conversed with the white men 

 who were aequ^.'ed with the business of the country, 

 and the country iuolf as far north as the great Yukon 

 Eiver, the third largest river in the world, which abounds 

 with a variety of fish, fur and fowl. The borders of the 

 river contain the great breeding fields of a large variety 

 of waterfowl. In all our inquiry concerning the variety 

 of freight shipped from here, we found it to consist mostly 

 Of fish, fur and lumber, and we did not hear of any in- 

 stance where eggs of fowl were sent abroad as freight. 

 We did not get a particle of evidence concerning this. 



We gathered some items of interest concerning the fur 

 trade. The fur seal, a great variety of foxes, and the 

 bears are very valuable, but the Bea otter are the most 

 valuable of any furs taken in Alaska. These are also the 

 most difficult to obtain. The sea otter is twice or three 

 times as large as the land otter, and the fur merchants 

 have to pay the natives there from $100 to $400 each for 

 these furs. These men said that one skin was Bold in 

 Russia for $1,000. There is quite a variety of bears in 



Alaska. One man who professed to be acquainted with 

 the customs of the bears in that country said that where 

 there were any fresh-water streams running from the 

 hills into the sea, that were not too steep for the salmon 

 to go up, the fish would fill the stream full in a short 

 time, and then the bears would go to the stream and 

 throw the salmon out with their paws on to the dryland, 

 then drag tbem away from the water and sit down and 

 eat them. The bears live in this manner until they get 

 fat; and they are easy to kill while engaged in eating the 

 fish. 



The Maska waters abound with Balmon, trout, tomcod 

 and other fish. They are very cheap. We saw fishermen 

 sell fresh salmon, weighing from 10 to 201bs., to the pur- 

 chasers on the steamers for from five to eight cents each. 



W. Woodruff. 



Even a Girl can Kill a Trapped Bear. 



The Elizabethtown (N. Y.) Post prints the story from a 

 Brainard's Forge, Adirondacks, correspondent: "Sunday 

 night I told my wife I wanted to get up at 2 o'clock, 

 Monday morning, to go up toward Jay to take an old 

 horse that I was going to kill for bear bait. My girl 

 wanted to know if I was going to any bear trapB; she said 

 if I was, she was going with me. I told her it was a long 

 ways and over a rough road, and that she had better wait 

 until I thought I would have a bear. 



"I was up at half -past 2 in the morning, got my 

 horses, ate breakfast, found the girl up and bound to go. 

 We started off at 4 o'clock in the morning; and went to 

 Spruce Mill Brook about 7 or 8 o'clock. I left her with 

 the horses and went off toward Jay to find a place to put 

 my bear bait. I couldn't find a good place to put the bear 

 bait, came back and found girl and horses all right, then 

 we started off south, but a short distance from where I 

 had two bear traps set. I went on above from the place 

 where I had two bear traps and told the girl to stay there 

 until I came back. It was bad traveling and I was gone 

 longer than I expected to be, as I wanted to find a place 

 to kill the horse. I left my gun with her, and told her if 

 a bear came along to kill him. I did not suppose there 

 was a bear within five miles of us. I traveled around, but 

 did not get more than forty rods away from her when I 

 heard a gun go off. I had a white dog with me; he 

 started toward the place where I heard the gun; then I 

 heard him yelp, and the girl yelled, "The bear is killing 

 the dog." I went "hell-a-to-larup" through the brush, 

 then I heard another report from a gun. When I got to 

 where she was, she was sitting on a log and close by lay a 

 bear deader than a nit. She Baid she was looking for 

 some gum, when she heard a noise, which she thought 

 sounded like a chain rattling, she turned and walked along 

 and there she saw a bear trying to bite the jaws off the 

 trap. The bear had gotten into my trap the night be- 

 fore. I didn't think there would be anything in the trap, 

 as I was there a few days before. 



"My oldest daughter went with me to a trap last fall 

 and I found a bear in the trap. She saw the bear first 

 and wanted to kill it; but the foot was nearly off, so I shot 

 it myself. The girl shot this bear through the shoulders 

 the first time; she said he dropped down, but got up pretty 

 quick; the next time she shot him through the ear, after 

 that, she said, he did not move a muscle. The next time 

 I want a bear I am going to take my wife along with me 

 and see if she can kill one. Elijah Simonds." 



Cutting off a Partridge's Head with a Bullet 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Dick of Connecticut seems to think that cutting the 

 head of a partridge with a rifle bullet is one of the things 

 talked about and not done. If Dick had been much in 

 the backwoods of Maine or the Provinces, he would hardly 

 ask such a question. About all the partridges killed by 

 the Maine guides when back in the woods are shot with a 

 rifle, and cutting off the head or neck is the usual way. 

 I never saw a guide do it, for this reason, that I never saw 

 a guide shoot anything. A good deal of my hunting for 

 deer and caribou has been done without a guide, and 

 when I did employ one he never carried a shotgun or 

 rifle. If there was to be any shooting I would do it. 



I have seen a good many partridges which were 

 evidently killed in the above manner. Their heads were 

 gone or hanging by a piece of skin, and as there was no 

 other mark on them of either bullet or shot it was pretty 

 safe to say their heads had been cut off with a bullet. As 

 for seeing it done I have done it myself a good many 

 times. I am quite sure I have killed over fifty in such a 

 manner. On one of my last trips after caribou to Town- 

 ship No. 7 in Aroostook, I had several days when it was 

 of no use to try still-hunting on account of noisy crusty 

 snow. I would cruise up and down the old Aroostook 

 road looking for partridges. I shot twelve, shooting fif- 

 teen shots to get them, and every one had its head or neck 

 cut off with a bullet. I found four in a birch and shot the 

 heads off three in as many shots. As my rifle was a 

 .45-90 loaded with lOOgrs. powder there was no use shoot- 

 ing at a partridge's body if I wished to save it. Of course 

 the partridges I found in the backwoods were very tame 

 and I could usually get within 7 to 15yds. of them, and 

 certainly it is not very difficult to hit one in the head or 

 neck with a bullet at that distance when the bird is sitting 

 still. C. M. Stark. 



DCNBARTON, N. H. 



Michigan Prairie Chickens and Pigeons. 



Lansing, Mich., Sept. 14.— Jay Skinner, J. E. Nichols, 

 Launt Thompson and Howard Sweet shot nine prairie 

 chickens on Monday south of Pine Lake. The chicken is 

 quite a rare bird for this section. 



C. J. Davis secured an albino meadow lark one day last 

 week, and he has mounted it for his collection. 



Wild pigeons are in small flocks near Pine Lake. 

 Twenty were Bhot there last Sunday. 



Several parties are being organized here to go North 

 after deer in November. The $25 license required of non- 

 residents will be a great help toward protecting deer. 



Julian. 



Adirondack Deer. 



North Hudson, N. Y., Sept. 10.— L. A. Chafey, pro- 

 prietor of Pine Ridge Cottage here, killed a very nice 

 deer, the first one of the season. The party killed two 

 deer and one bear the same day. E. E. W, 



