Deo, 14, 1805.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



by the party, the principal lack being light snow. No 

 sooner did a snow come than it would be followed by rain 

 and crust. Four times the mercury went below zero, and 

 on Wednesday morning last it was 12 below. 



Dr. Bishop thinks tbat moose are increasing in Maine, 

 "but they are not increasing as rapidly as moose hunters 

 are. There are certainly more moose this year than last." 

 His experience in moose hunting should entitle him to a 

 good deal of credence. Caribou, he thinks, are doomed 

 unless something is done. Still he thinks that their mi- 

 grations may bring them back again. Deer he believes 

 to be able to stand up against even the present great rate 

 of slaughter if crusting and early summer shooting is 

 taken care of. Special 



NOTES FROM WASHINGTON. 



Dr. George Henderson, surgeon of the District militia, 

 has returned from a week's trip to Virginia, The Doctor 

 made Alleghany his headquarters, and had the pleasure 

 of shooting a magnificent buck, one of the finest deer he 

 has ever seen. The buck had a fine pair of antlers, being 

 five-pronged, with a lateral horn. The saddles weighed 

 801bs. The Doctor shot him on the go, the deer being 

 about 140 strides off. 



Reports of success with deer hunting in West Virginia 

 and Pennsylvania are coming in. In the mountains of 

 the former State deer are reported to be in fair numbers, 

 while in Pennsylvania, on the South Mountain, hunters 

 are having some sport. 



Messrs. Green and Gulick have returned from South 

 Carolina, whither they went for quail. Of course they 

 bagged some birds, but the shooting is not to be compared 

 with former years. While a couple of years ago twenty 

 coveys would be scared up in a day, this year but three or 

 four could be found. 



Mr. Jos. H. Hunter is visiting the old home in Indiana. 

 He is banging away at birds, if there are any; if none, at 

 something else. For Joseph is a great lover of the gun. 



The authorities of Prince George's county, Maryland, 

 are up in arms against some of our misfit hunters. This 

 county lies to the east of Washington and used to contain 

 quail and rabbit, besides other small game, and to a small 

 extent still contains game. The law of the county re- 

 quires non-residents to secure a permit from the Clerk of 

 | the Court before hunting in the county. This require- 

 ment, it is claimed, is pretty generally disregarded, so 

 steps are being taken to exclude outside gunners. Many 

 of the farms are posted. 



All the same, if a man goes to Upper Marlborough, 

 Prince George's county seat, sees the Clerk of the Court 

 and then starts out with the boys, he will have a good 

 time, whether it be coon hunt, possum hunt, ducking on 

 the Patuxent or swapping yarns. Bart. 



MASSACHUSETTS SOUTH SHORE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



As an enthusiast in the many local advantages for 

 sport in shooting and fishing in this vicinity, I have been 

 not a little chagrined to find no reference to it in Forest 

 and Stream except what scattering reference is made to 

 catching smelts by Hackle or a stray mention of some 

 name familiar to the habitues of Hingham or Cohasset by 

 Special. So I made a mental resolution, and am follow- 

 ing it out on paper, that unless you prohibited it this 

 locality of ours should occasionally be represented. 



There is no better all-round fishing and gunning county 

 in Massachusetts than Plymouth county, in which are 

 most of the South Shore towns. 



But I won't digress into a description of the country, as 

 all I intend to do is merely to give a few facts in relation 

 to sports and sportsmen. 



The smelting season is practically over. Never has it 

 been better in and around Hull and in Hingham Harbor 

 than this year. Beginning with the 1st of June, the 

 catches were phenomenal for warm weather. The high- 

 est catch in one day that I have heard of was 701bs. 



Mr. T. O. Edmonds, the veteran bandmaster, is an ar- 

 dent disciple of the rod, and it is his intention to secure 

 an appropriation from both Hingham and Hull to be used 

 in apprehending the seiners who annually infest these 

 harbors. 



I visited the Stony Beach House at Nantasket Beach a 

 while ago, and was amused to find the exterior of this lit- 

 tle hostelry decorated from chimney to foundation, piazza 

 and all, with coot, hung up in strings. Genial George 

 Hatch, the proprietor, is high line for the season with 542. 

 His best day's work was seventy -seven. 



M>. Carl Place, proprietor of the Gun Rock House, has 

 just returned from a hunting trip in the vicinity of Mt. 

 Katahdin, Me., and the two deer he brought out have fur- 

 nished venison steaks for his friends. 



Geese shooting in Hingham Harbor and at Accord 

 Pond has been as nothing compared with last year, but 

 the gunners are all hoping for a late flight. The birds 

 seem to pass more to the east and west of us. 



At State Island, where Mr. Edwin Clapp, the well- 

 known shoe manufacturer, has a stand, twenty-six have 

 been shot. At Accord Pond, where there are three 

 stands — Wilder's, Chubbuck's and Poole's — the entire kill 

 has been but seventeen. At Whitman Pond in Wey- 

 mouth I hear they have done better, while at Jacob's 

 Pond in Norwell it has been light gunning. 



I don't think quail shooting was ever better than it 

 has been here this season. Of course the prime condition 

 which made it so was the close law in 1894. but in Hing- 

 ham particularly the gunning fraternity are profiting by 

 the stocking of private estates. The Brewer estate, Mr. 

 Chas. B Barnes, Mr. Wm. L. Bradley's estate, Mr. Fran- 

 cis W. Brewer, Mr. J. D. Scudder on the Downer prop- 

 erty, have all put out quail and the birds will escape their 

 confines to the benefit of the gunners. Six to ten is a 

 frequent bag. 



Partridges, too, have been brought to bag in good num- 

 bers. 



Elisha Burr, the veteran dog trainer and proprietor of 

 Burr's kennels, is kept busy most of the time in making 

 it pleasant for his many visitors. Dr. Langmaid is a fre- 

 quent visitor and so is Mr. Peabody, of Kidder, Peabcdy 

 & Co. Somehow or other they always manage to return 

 to Boston with the pockets of their gunning coats .well 

 filled. But then, 'Lish' has got pretty nearly every bird 

 tagged in these parts, and when he puts up his gun— well 

 (no reflection intended on the other fellows' marksman- 

 ship, either). 



Fred. Farrar, of Norwell, exhibited a woodcock which 

 he shot a few days ago. Pretty late for woodcock. I 



guess he was "the only one that's left of all the family." 

 Speaking of woodcock, this same Farrar and a friend, 

 Herb Hersey, also a well-known local sport, bagged 

 thirteen woodcock and six quail for one forenoon's sport, 

 one day in October. Pretty good sport, wasn't it, you 

 fellows who think you've got to go out West to get gun- 

 ning? 



A light snow is all the fox hunters are waiting for up 

 in the Norwell country, and then the hounds may be 

 heard. Twenty-five foxes were shot last year in that 

 region. 



Among those to try their luck here this fall I have 

 noticed Mr. Charles F. Danforth, a well-known insurance 

 agent of Boston; Mr. E. L. Bremer, Harvard, '96; Mr. 

 Dick Jenness, the well-known wool teamster of Boston, 

 besides more whose names I don't know. 



More anon. Pablo. 



ADIRONDACK LANDS. 



Troy, N. Y., Dec. 7.— Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 send you herewith clippings from the Albany papers 

 relative to lands purchased by the Land Board and the 

 Fish and Game Commission yesterday: 



"The State Commissioners of the land office yesterday 

 approved of the recommendation of the State Fish, Game 

 and Forest Commission, that the State purchase 75,000 

 acres of land in Herkimer and Hamilton counties wuhin 

 the boundaries of the Adirondack State Park. The price 

 to be paid is $8 an acre, or $600 000, The land belongs to 

 Dr. W. Seward Webb and a small portion is inundated 

 by back water caused by the construction of the Bcavc r 

 River and Moose River dams. Dr. Webb has now pendirg 

 against the State claims for damagps to this land amouni- 

 ing to about $400,000, and these claims are extinguished 

 by the State purchasing the land. The damages arise to 

 his land and valuable lodge and camping sites, but the 

 large proportion of the claiui for damages is based on the 

 fact that the construction of the dams destroys the natural 

 outlet of the rivers by which the logs cut from the lands 

 were to be marketed. 



"This is the largest addition that has been made to the 

 lands owned by the State within the boundaries of the 

 Adirondack Park in many years. There are 2,807,760 

 acres in the area set apart for the State park, a good por- 

 tion of which the State expects to acquire gradually. The 

 State now owns about 600,000 acres within the Adirondack 

 Park boundaries, and the Webb purchase will give the 

 State title to about one-quarter of the total acreage in 

 the Adirondack region within the State preserve." 



For the sum named, $600,000, four or five times the 

 quantity of land purchased could have been bought in 

 more desirable portions of the Adirondack woods. The 

 statement that "some of the lands" cost Dr. Webb more 

 than the price now asked is misleading. It is a fact that 

 after Dr. Webb had secured the bulk of the property he 

 was obliged to pay rather steep prices for small, isolated 

 parcels located within the limits of territory acquired by 

 him. The claim for damages was a most exorbitant one, 

 and would not have been allowed by the Court of Claimp, 

 at least no large portion of it. 



The Stillwater dam was raised 8ft. in 1892 under my 

 supervision, and I am quite familiar with existing condi- 

 tions, and have no hesitancy in saying that for purposes 

 of lumbering, with the exception of the comparatively 

 small portion flooded, the value of the lands purchased 

 yesterday has been actually enhanced. M. Schenck, 



ABOUT NON-RESIDENTS AND DEER. 



Portland, Ind,, Dec. 2. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 am not a little surprised at the remarks of your Mr. 

 Hough, under date of Nov. 2, relative to hunters in Wis- 

 consin and Michigan. I am reminded of the old saying 

 about men in glass houses. Speaking of hunters from 

 Ohio and Indiana, he says: "Many of these men will 

 revile the game laws which prohibit hounding and all the 

 easy ways of destroying deer." He refers to men being 

 killed and says, "Nearly always they are the wrong ones." 

 Now, by what authority does Mr. Hough sit in judgment 

 on the non-resident hunters in Wisconsin? And where 

 does he get evidence that justifies him, on Nov. 2, in say- 

 ing that during the first twenty days of that month 

 "many of these men will revile the game laws?" And 

 what prompts him to state that "nearly always they are 

 the wrong ones" that get killed? Only a couple of months 

 ago he told us of what a fine time he had had trouting in 

 Wisconsin. Did he revile the fish laws? Did the right 

 man get killed while he was up there fishing? How is it 

 down in Mississippi, where he is now? We extract from 

 his language the understanding that if the right man 

 gets killed he will be a non-resident. 



There were too many hunters in Wisconsin this season, 

 I admit; yet I am not sure the deer suffered any the more 

 on that account. A forest full of huntei's is in a measure 

 dangerous to the hunters, but the deer, finding themselves 

 chased at every point, in a few days leave that section 

 until the hunters withdraw, then they return. 



Besides many business and professional men take ad- 

 vantage of the cheap rates and opportunity for recrea- 

 tion who never go far from camp. They may be sports- 

 men in the strictest sense. They enjoy the outing, though 

 they never kill a deer. I have killed twenty-two deer in 

 eight outings, but I have had with me on several of these 

 tripa a county school superintendent, a prominent physi- 

 cian and a merchant whose Saturday sales average $1,500, 

 neither of whom has killed a deer. I have met many 

 hunters in the forest and on the way, and feel safe in 

 saying that fully four-fifths of them were respectable 

 citizens in their community and of more than average in- 

 telligence. There are exceptions is this case, as in all 

 others, but I protest against the hunters from Ohio and 

 Indiana being stigmatized as a motley crowd. 



As to hounding deer or other violations of law Mr. Say- 

 nor, whose portrait in the garb of a representative woods- 

 man appears in your last week's paper, and W-io is pro- 

 prietor of Plumb Lake Hotel, near where we were camped 

 this season, could bear evidence that no Ohio nor Indiana 

 hunter was guilty in that section this season. Thirty -five 

 men from Ohio and Indiana were cairp d at Plumb 

 Creek. Our camp got three large bucks, another got two 

 deer and one bear, another one deer, w hile two camps 

 got nothing but small game. A native camp with two 

 dogs got, I think, eight deer. The dogs, of course, ran 

 foxes only. 



There may have been violations of law by non-resident 

 hunters in other parts of the State, and I would not for a 



moment condone these offenses; but the sweeping charges 

 made by Mr, H. are an injustice to law-abiding sportsmen, 

 and should be withdrawn, 



We were advised while in camp that a license law 

 would be agitated, and to a man up a tree it looks as if 

 this was the beginning of it. He says a traveling passen- 

 ger agent reported that thirty-five hunters got off at Ab- 

 botsford in one day. Abbotsf ord is where Wisconsin Cen- 

 tral passengers change cars on to the Ashland Division, 

 and is near the center of the State and 203 miles from 

 Duluth. I hunted last year sixty-eight miles north of 

 Abbotsford, on the Wisconsin Central road, and know 

 that the entire division runs through good deer range, 

 furnishing hunting ground for several hundred hunters. 

 The towns are few and population small, while the rail- 

 roads run parallel and some thirty miles apart. We 

 camped last year sixteen miles from the railroad, in order 

 to get good bass fishing, the hunting season being in Oc- 

 tober; and we saw no other hunters except a tent of In- 

 dians. Five hundred hunters might scatter themselves 

 over the northern half of Wisconsin and there would 

 not be more than one hunter on each thirty-five square 

 miles. This would not seem to threaten the extermina- 

 tion of the deer very soon, when it is known that a camp 

 of still-hunters rarely cover more than nine equare miles, 

 be they one or a dozen in number. 



If deer were killed only by Btill-hunting, and that dur- 

 ing an open season of three or four weeks, the forests of 

 Wisconsin and Michigan would furnish good sport with 

 the rifle until they go up in smoke to make room for the 

 settler's potato patch. G. W. Cunningham. 



The Port Huron, Mich., Times of Dec. 2 reports that 

 the Turtle Hunting Club, of Alpena, recently returned 

 from a hunt with twenty-eight deer. Nine of the mem- 

 bers were from outside the State, notwithstanding only 

 one non-resident license had been issued. 



_>.. 



Chincoteague Ducks. 



Stockton, Worcester County, Md., Nov. 6.— This year 

 the redheads and bluebills are unusually late to arrive 

 here in Chincoteague Bay. Last year at this time they 

 were on the shoals in great numbers. The fact of 

 our having no heavy storms, I think, will account for 

 their late arrival. To-day the wind is blowing hard from 

 the N.E. with snow and rain, and it looks as if we were 

 about to have an old-fashioned gale. This will bring the 

 ducks down from the upper waters. 



There are plenty of small ducks and any number of 

 cubheads, whistler or golden-eyes or j ingle rs — it is as- 

 tonishing what a number of names each duck has to go 

 by. From any point or blind on the bay you can get a 

 dozen or so before 9 o'clock any morning. They are 

 very nice and fat and make better shooting than redheads 

 or bluebills, as they fly singly or in pairs, never bunching, 

 and are remarkably swift on the wing, requiring much 

 more skill than bunch shooting. But when you are in- 

 formed that there is nothing in the house and you had 

 better not oome home without a dinner it makes some 

 difference — at least it does to me. 



There are a good many geese and some few swan, but 

 no brant yet. The shooting is all done from shore or 

 from blinds stuck out on the shoals. There are no sink- 

 boxes here; a good battery well covered with decoys 

 would do great wort. Late in the winter there are par- 

 ties here who shoot the geese and brant with lanterns and 

 big gunB. This is to be deplored , but it seems we either 

 have no law here or no one w illing to apprehend the cul- 

 prits. 



The quail have been very plentiful. in this county; last 

 year they were protected, and the result was fine shoots 

 ing when birds have been scarce everywhere else. Our 

 cover is very heavy here, and notwithstanding the enor- 

 mous amount of shooting that has been done we still have 

 plenty of birds, but it takes lots of work, a good dog and 

 a good shot to make a good bag. O. D. Fqtjlks. 



Tennessee Deer and Quail. 



Chattanooga, Tenn. — The Cumberland Mountain range 

 has been almost entirely depleted of its stock of deer. 

 Would you believe it if I were to tell you that last year 

 there were 248 ca rcasses of deer shipped from the small 

 town of Crossville in Cumberland county, East Tennessee? 

 Is not that an infernal shame? And then some people 

 have not got sense enough to advocate stringent game laws. 

 We are cursed in this particular section of the country 

 with "pot hunters." There is one man named Bud 

 Holmes who kills all the quail within ten miles of Chat- 

 tanooga and sells them at $1 per dozen or about 8c. each. 



I am] glad to report that the last Tennessee Legislature 

 passed a law forbidding the killing of deer in five of our 

 mountain counties for a psriod of five years. This is a god- 

 send to sportsmen, as tnis section would soon have been 

 like some other parts of the country entirely cleaned out o£ 

 deer, The names of the counties that the new law is en- 

 acted upon are Cumberland, Claibon, Scott, Morgan and 

 Anderson. All of these counties are mountain counties 

 and have more or less deer. The penalty for killing or 

 hounding a deer is $50,half of which goes to the informant. 

 Please publish this, as there are scores of Kentuckians who 

 make an annual hunt into the Cumberland Mountains of 

 East Tennessee and that is where a great many of our deer 

 go. I do not think the law is generally known, as it was 

 passed and recorded at the last meeting of the Legislature. 



Quail are fairly plentiful if one goes fifteen or twenty 

 miles out from Chattanooga. I was out not long since with 

 my hunting chum Wm. Cooke and we raised nine coveys 

 with one dog and it was very dry. I am sorry to say we 

 did very poor shooting, as we only bagged twenty birds. 

 Several of the coveys we let go without shooting at them 

 on account of their being in thickets and bad places. 



A. B. Wingfield. 



Colorado Deer Law Violation. 



The Denver Club, Nov. 25. — Editor Forest and Stream: 

 In your paper of Nov. 23 I notice an article by Mr, Edw, 

 W. Ball recounting how he killed a doe, and tried to kill 

 a fawn in this State. As this is absolutely against the law 

 in Colorado I am surprised that such an article should find 

 its way into Forest and Stream even if the writer was 

 unsportsmanlike enough to violate the law and shoot does 

 and fawns. John A, Porter, 



The Forest and Stream is put to press each iceek on Tues- 

 day. Correspondence intended for publication should reach 

 us at the lattsi by Monday, and as much eortUr aspracticable 



