Deo. 14, 1895. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



613 



member that our meals, toothsome as they were, were 

 seasoned with Spartan sauce, and you will readily con- 

 ceive that we had no trouble in reaching tbe state of 

 beatitude where a man is thankful that he is alive, and 

 wouldn't change places with the Czar of Russia or any 

 other potentate on earth. 



As to our other domestic arrangements, they were of 

 the simplest, and in simplicity lies perfection. We made 

 a pen, seven feet long, across one'end of the camp, filled 

 it full of hay and fir boughs, and spread our blankets on 

 top of both. A softer, warmer bed no man desires, and 

 if a man wishes to experience the deep, dreamless sleep 

 of boyhood, just let him take a couple of weeks' vacation 

 next November, go hunting in the Minnesota pine woods, 

 follow our example as here set forth, and if he don't get 

 his wish his conscience and digestion are beyond repair. 

 As become good woodsmen, we used our tupsacks for pil- 

 lows. A "tussack" is simply a grain sack, into which 

 extra clothing, tobacco and such can be packed, and 

 which can be carried across the back by means of a stout 

 cord. As to dishes, knives, forks and so forth, of 

 course, we had them, but used them as little as might be. 

 Each man had his own and looked after them. Some 

 washed them after each meal, while others gave them "a 

 lick and a promise" — that is, licked them as clean as pos- 

 sible and then polished them cleaner and brighter on his 

 trousers. I know that may sound horrifying to ears 

 polite, but it is wonderful bow soon even the ultra fas- 

 tidious yield to the charm of free, untrammeled woods 

 life and become as "rowdyish and bully" as the most un- 

 regenerate lumber jack. 



The hunting was excellent; it always is, but the quarry 

 was not near as abundant as it would have been had we a 

 little snow. The wood? were as dry as a chip, and to get 

 through them without making noise enough to scare all 

 the game within a mile would have puzzled an Indian. 

 But the deer were thick, and we were hunting for pleas- 

 ure, not for profit, and so bore our first poor luck with 

 good grace. We easily got alL we could eat, and let 

 scarce a day go by that we did not hang up a deer some- 

 where in the woods. And right here let me tell you that 

 the man who goes deer hunting must remember that he 

 has to match his craft against the instinct of the wariest 

 creature that breathes; that he must exercise the utmost 

 patience, fortitude and judgment before he gets a shot, 

 and must have and conquer the "buck ague" before he 

 kills. We did no hunting in the morning. Only the 

 Indian and the most expert of white hunters ever accom- 

 plish anything at that. The reason is that the deer are 

 all hidden from about daylight till the middle of the 

 afternoon in swamps and thickets, and the only specimen 

 of their kind abroad are bucks on amatory errands, who 

 are as wary on such occasions as a cat on a cream stealing 

 expedition, and as hard to get a good sight of. I did try 

 watching for one of the antlered gentry on a runway, 

 where the sign told me he was in the daily practice of 

 traveling, but my object was defeated by the deer's nat- 

 ural ally, the little red squirrel. I had found good cover 

 under a stump commanding the runway, and was watch- 

 ing it both ways, with my soul in my eyes, when bunny 

 showed up. Bunny promptly ascended a tree and set up 

 a chattering which could be heard for half a mile. I 

 tried throwing sticks at him, but he only ran up the tree 

 and went into wilder paroxysms of wrath at my pres- 

 ence. I tried going away, and stayed away an hour, but 

 the little red fiend was on hand again on my return, and 

 set up his infernal chatter at a greater rate than ever. He 

 was too insignificant to kill, and so 1 left him pounding 

 the termination of his spinal column against the tree and 

 chattering as wrathfully as ever; and so time wore on 

 until our first week was nearly up, and we had eaten two 

 deer and had three hung up. It may sound like a Gar- 

 gantuan feat to say we had eaten three deer, but if you 

 had ever eaten such booyaw as Rube made, and such 

 venison steaks as we broiled over the coals — of course we 

 brought a broiler along— you would wonder at the mod- 

 eration we exercised in the face of the opportunities we 

 had. 



But one night the snow came, and in the next three 

 days we hung up fourteen, including two of as pretty 

 bucks as you ever looked at. O ur mode of hunting was each 

 man for himself. Each started out and worked over the 

 ridges, eyes all over him, and ears ever on the alert. 

 Each practiced the cardinal principles of successful deer 

 hunting, which is, never have a cartiidge in your rifle 

 chamber until you are ready to shoot; never shoot till 

 you plainly see what you are shooting at, and never jerk 

 your trigger; always press it; and it paid us a hundred 

 fold. Only one deer fairly hit got away from us, and had 

 we not been too far from camp at the time to follow him 

 I think we would have added him to our collection. Out 

 of the twenty victims of our skill but two had fallen to 

 my rifle up to our last day's hunting — and I began to 

 think that the laugh was on me, both being does — when 

 a wonderful piece of luck came to me that put me well 

 with the party — who didn't see the elegant Bnap I had — 

 and which I will briefly describe. I was walking camp- 

 ward about 4 o'clock in the afternoon after a long and 

 vain trudge after a shot, and had the good luck to be 

 traveling against the wind — which is the one way to 

 travel if you want to find a deer at your journey's end— 

 and had sat down against a stump for a few moments' 

 rest, when I suddenly caught Bight of a fine deer some 

 forty rods away from me. I rested my rifle on the stump 

 and held fairly in the middle of her forehead. My aim 

 was sure as death, and I was slowly pressing the trigger 

 when she began to cut up in a way that was never meant 

 for my edification, but which put an idea into my head 

 which secured her a reprieve. Have you ever seen a 

 pretty girl on the street who is willing to commence a 

 flirtation with a good looking young fellow on the oppo- 

 site side of the street, but wants him to take the initia- 

 tive? Of course you nave, if you are familiar with city 

 streets, and equally of course you can form a 

 good idea of that doe's actions without being told. I 

 tumbled at once. There was a king of bucks at hand, and 

 I risked losing the doe at hand to get him. I knelt there, 

 like a very homely model of a statue of patience on a 

 monument, for I don't know how long — it seemed two 

 hours at least — when the doe suddenly threw up her head 

 and ran off, yet slowly, and as one not un w iiling to be over- 

 taken, and the next moment the antlered monarch of the 

 woods came in sight — a perfect picture of virile strength 

 and beauty — perfectly oblivious to everything but the re- 

 lenting fair so coyly, yet slowly, retiring before his ardent 

 pursuit, and giving me the chance of a lifetime. I saw 

 ^ e would pass within 30yds. of me, and let him come on 



unmolested till his flank was fairly opposite the stump, 

 when I sent two shots into him as fast as I could pull. 

 He ran on for 88 paces — I paced the distance afterward 

 —but he fell, and I found both balls had gone through 

 his heart. When I cut his throat not a teaspoonful of 

 blood fell on the knife, every drop of blood had been 

 pumped out of his body before he fell. I disembow eled 

 him, made a sled Indian fashion out of basswo'td saplings, 

 bound with their own bark, put my prize oa it ard with 

 labor as hard as ever man knew, but as sweet as sweet 

 could be in view of what I was dragging, dragged him to 

 camp I had him weighed when we got back to Aitkin, 

 and he tipped the scales at 225!bs. His antlers were as fine 

 a pair as ever I saw, and will soon ornament the home of 

 one of Minnesotii'ei ablest jurists. When I got into camp 

 Rube gravely proposed to hoop me, to avert danger of 

 bursting, and to tell the truth I was shooting mammoth 

 bucks all night. The next day we broke camp, and in three 

 days' travel we reached home, tired, dirty and ragged, but 

 happy beyond compare. Kell, 



MERELY SQUIRRELS. 



Until a man has had his annual outing in which his 

 favorite tastes have been gratified everything else seems 

 tame and insignificant. He has dreamed of Maine, of 

 the Adirondacks, of the great West; he has been there or 

 elsewhere, had his adventures and misadventures, and 

 come baek and told about them. Then he begins to real- 

 ize that no more trips of that sort will be vouchsafed to 

 him in 1895, and he looks about him for some of the les- 

 ser sports within his reach. The elk, the moose and the 

 deer are no longer accessible; but there are the quail, the 

 grouse, the rabbits and the squirrels, and they are all 

 within a very few hours' ride from the city. Yes, he 

 will have a try at them, take the edge off from his yearn- 

 ing, and at least have the satisfaction of smelling powder 

 once again. Some such train of thought as this prompted 

 me to get out my Parker last month, pack my faded and 

 disreputable looking corduroys and take the afternoon 

 train for a little town on the N. J. & N. Y. road. I had 

 heard a well authenticated rumor that there were gray 

 squirrels there. Now gray squirrels are the game on 

 which I was brought up, and I have never gotten over a 

 sneaking fondness for hunting them, although I am 

 sometimes derided therefor by certain friends, who 

 would rather thrash about in a blackberry patch all day 

 for a single quail than to shoot a string of squirrels, 



I am prepared to defend my position and give logical 

 reasons for a fondness for the sport, In the first place, it 

 takes you into the big, clean woods, which is better than 

 brush and briars and swamp. It is still-hunting too, and 

 surely, from the sportsman's standpoint, that is all right. 

 Both the eye and the ear are called into play, and a con- 

 siderable knowledge of the squirrel's habits and tricks is 

 necessary to insure success. Then there are easier things 

 to shoot than a squirrel on the run, and I have seen very 

 good field shots "make some unaccountable misses when 

 they attempted to stop him in his erratic course. 



Be that as it may, I got back to first principles and 

 went squirrel hunting. Everything was favorable, in- 

 cluding the weather and the apple j ack at the little hotel 

 where I stopped. I was in the woods before it was fairly 

 light, and it was not long before the familiar squawk of a 

 squirrel came from a bunch of oaks near by. Careful in- 

 vestigation revealed two, and the full-choked 12-gauge 

 landed them both. 



I do not propose to follow out the details of the day's 

 sport which made a boy of me again, but merely to "obey 

 orders and report my luck to Forest and Stream," I saw 

 ten squirrels, and bagged seven of them and a rabbit. Had 

 a snap shot at a partridge and missed it clean. I couldn't 

 lay it to the gun either, for it killed everything it was 

 properly pointed at that day. . 



Just a day's squirrel hunt, that was all; but it was good 

 to be there. The hazy autumn air was full of tome, the 

 pungent scent of the ripened leaves was a wholesome de- 

 light, and the woodland sights and sounds were a rest and 

 a relief. And these are the little things which help to 

 make life endurable. Arthur F. Rice. 



SPORTSMANSHIP. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have been taking great interest in all the different 

 letters on the above that have appeared week by week in 

 your paper, and now that it seems all can air their opin- 

 ions on the subject (and that is as it should be), may I 

 have the privilege of also saying a few words on the 

 matter? 



In your week's issue dated Nov. 30, 1895, I see a letter 

 by a gentleman signing himself Orin Belknap, in which 

 he expresses himself on the above subject, which I sup- 

 pose will never reach solution while all people make a 

 world, yet I can assure him of two things that I think are 

 rather mistaken ideas in his letter on thi3 subject, viz., 

 the aspirations of the English language, and also his 

 amusement at the ideas of the way in which a bird's con- 

 dition should be to taste good to the poor deluded Brit- 

 isher! To deal with these two points separately— firstly, 

 I can assure your correspondent that the majority of 

 educated Englishmen speak as good grammar, and aspi- 

 rate the H as generally, as does the equally well educai. d 

 American, and also one meets in America as uneducated 

 men as in any other part of the world, England included. 



In what condition game should be eattn is simply a 

 matter of taste, and I think that if Mr. Oriu B^lkmap has 

 traveled to any extent over this continent he will have 

 observed that there are numbers of his own countrymen 

 who like a bird kept in moderation, and without being 

 "Anglo-maniacs" at that. 



To get to the point that is, however, now drawing our 

 attention, viz,, "What constitutes sportsmanship?" 



In my humble opinion it is giving the quarry a chance 

 for its life, and pitting your brains against the natural 

 sagacity and cunning of the animal, bird or fish. 



Take hunting with foxhounds, for instance, in a prairie 

 or open country. Which constitutes in your readers' minds 

 the higher ideal of true sport: to find a wolf or a fox and lay 

 hounds on either of their respective trails, to have checks 

 (on account of the cunning of the quarry or climatic 

 causes) and then hit off the line again, and eventually, 

 after a good gallop, with your hounds working out the 

 puzzle in front of them, to mark to ground (and then to 

 leave it there for another day); or to run in in the open 

 after possibly an hour's work, and to ride home and pon- 

 der on the individual work of this hound here or how 



* iat puppy took up the trail there, and with only possibly 

 one mask at your saddle; or to go out with the hounds, 

 put up your quarry and gallop like a maniac, whooping 

 and hallooing, ride over the poor brute, hitting it over 

 the head with a stiofc, or shooting it about a mile or two 

 from the start, and th m nd* bone with possibly several 

 pelts gained this way da^'ins- at your saddle, your 

 hourms trudging along bemVnd wondering where their 

 spovt came i a? 



A!po take greyhounds on 'he flat prairies; what greater 

 murder than to put up a jack rabbit and chase it with 

 eight or ten f H.st greyhounds, giving it no chance to 

 double and picking it, up in 20 rods or less, instead of run- 

 ning two hounds in a leash and giving the quarry a legit- 

 imate chance for its life? 



A-ain, which is the belter: to ahoot a bevy of quail on 

 the ground or a bunch of ducks oh the water, or to get a 

 smart right and left at the rise and know there are some 

 birds left for another day? 



Which is the better: to land a lib. trout with light tackle 

 after a good bit of play, or to heave out over your head 

 half a dozen 21b. pickerel with a bamboo stick and a thin 

 rope? 



Also allow me to say that there are good sportsmen in 

 America as well as in every nation in every part of the 

 world, and also there are first-class poachers. As far as I 

 can see, if the question comes in that the game is to be 

 taken for food, then the idea, throughout this letter is ab- 

 surd; because who in his senses, when absolutely needing 

 the wherewithal to live, would frighten a jack rabbit 

 from its form to have the pleasure of shooting it running 

 (with the possible chance of a miss) when fee could quietly 

 pot it when sitting; or scare up a bunch of mallards, to 

 also possibly fail to get one, when he could rake into them 

 on the water and get several? 



To prove that there are grand sportsmen in America, 

 take for instance a pioneer or big game hunter, even if he 

 does pot hunt to replenish his larder, which is only 

 reasonable, and he then takes his rifle, and meeting a 

 grizzly bear (and has the chance to retrace his steps) 

 deliberately opens fire against the brute, knowing if he 

 misses he is a dead man in all probability, then I think we 

 can consider him a sportsman. 



But allowing that the poor man here or elsewhere is 

 simply out for what he calls a day's sport; then my idea 

 is that, as I have said before, let him give every being a 

 chance for its life. 



Also possibly some of your readers will say, "It's easy 

 enough to be a sportsman if you are rich." Yet living, as 

 I have here for ten years, I find the worst enemies the 

 young hardly fledged birds have to contend against 

 before the opening day are the rich men from the cities 

 with their "Hinglish himported setters" and magazine 

 guns. 



Before concluding this I must say I should decidedly 

 like to take a few lessons in the American language from 

 th9 "dear lidy friend" of Mr. Oriu Belknap, who evidently 

 thinks "it's real smart" to say "jesturribul" or else doesn't 

 know any better. A "Side-tracked" Englishman. 



BOSTON HUNTERS OF BIG GAME. 



Boston, Dec. 7. — H. H. Moses, a prominent sportsman 

 of Exeter, N. H , has just returned from the Katahdin 

 region. He made his headquarters at the Iron Works, 

 tramping about from there to the different camps in search 

 of game. The weather conditions during his stay were 

 about as bad as possible, there being no snow, but very 

 frosty, making still-hunting almost an impossibility. In 

 spite of this he killed two small deer. Pleasant River 

 camps and Jack Coughlin's place at B. pond north of the 

 Katahdin Iron Works were both visited by Mr. Moses 

 during his stay, and he comes back with a fine opinion 

 of the whole region as a hunting country. Rev. I. J. 

 Lansing, of Boston, has just returned from the Iron Works, 

 and was fortunate enough to kill a fine buck within five 

 minutes' walk of the hotel. 



C. A, Taft, J. M. Lasell and C. V. Dudley, of Whitins- 

 ville, Mas3., have lately reached home from an eleven 

 days' visit to Mr. Taft's camps near Flagstaff, Maine. Mr. 

 Dudley killed a large buck with an exceptionally fine 

 head, and Mr. Taft also got a buck. The party saw deer 

 every day, but they had poor hunting conditions. They 

 estimate that they saw three times as many deer on this 

 trip as were seen on a trip made to the same region last 

 year, and consider themselves unfortunate in not having 

 snow to make the hunting better. 



John Weber, of Wrentham, and Edgar Belcher, of 

 South Easton, returned a short time ago from a trip north 

 of Moosehead Lake. They had as guide that expert 

 canoeman, Wm. Hildreth, of Greenville, who has guided 

 Mayor Curtis, of Boston, on several trips. They made 

 their principal camp on the Moosehorn dead-water, and 

 found the game very plenty, each of the sportsmen get- 

 ting two. While paddling down the West Branch of the 

 Penobscot they came within a few rods of a cow and 

 calf moose drinking in the river. The animals were quite 

 companionable and did not seem in the least disturbed by 

 the talking going on in the canoa. Finally they walked 

 off in the woods very leisurely. Partridges were plenty 

 and very tame, and b^th gentlemen are satisfied that the 

 region selected for ih ir o tiug is as good as they could 

 havt- found. 



Geo. Heywripd, of Gardner, Miss., has been up in the 

 Aroosiook""!) irtry for r'our W& ks, Most of this time was 

 spent hi Will Atkins's camj a, n^ar M'Umocket Lake, end 

 Mr. Heywood was Bnisoessful in getting a large bull moose 

 and two buck deer. Hackle. 



Anticipation and Realization. 



Chattanooga, Tenn., Oct. 27. — I am now working 

 fifteen hours a day endeavoring to get my business affairs 

 in shape for a three weeks' hunt in the Cumberland 

 Mountains, Our Chickamauga Rifle Club, which is a 

 sporting club as well ?s a shooting club, starts on the 

 yearly deer hunt on Nov. 9, and as I occupy the honor- 

 able position of historian for the club my presence is nec- 

 essary, 



Nov 27. — I am just back from our deer hunt on Cum- 

 berland Mountain and had very poor luck. Only killed 

 four wild turkeys and forty squirrels and one pheasant in 

 a two weeks' trip, The game feature of the trip was 

 almost a failure: but we had a jolly band of fellows and 

 lots of fun. A. B. Wingfield, 



