Feb. 9, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



4 7 



At the border between Maine and Canada he obtained 

 a certificate, certifying to the Canadian officials that to 

 his certain knowledge the bearer's venison waB killed in 

 the State of Maine. But on arriving at the express office 

 the agent refuted to transport it, and he was obliged to 

 dispose of it to escape confiscation. On the whole he 

 seems pretty well disgust ed, and in view of the loss of his 

 hard-earned trophies, and in relation to the officers whose 

 duty it should be to protect the game, he says, "They can 

 sit around a hot stove while the worthless skin-hunter 

 and vagabond guides are crusting the last specimen of 

 their noble game, while neither the State of Maiue nor the 

 Dominion of Canada got one farthing. But a non-resi- 

 dent who would leave $50 for every animal killed is 

 fleeced at every corner." I cannot, of course, speak for 

 other parts of' Maine, but the locality I visited^last fall 

 will require a thorough revolution and an enforcement 

 of the game laws for a long time before big game become 

 plentiful. MUS9ET. 



Number Four, Is. Y. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Having returned from a recent camp-out in the wilds of 

 Maine in search of game, and thinking a few notes might 

 be of interest to some sportsman undecided as to future 

 resorts, I am induced to say that no person living in the 

 Eastern States need make a trip thousands of miles West 

 to find game in abundance. The northern half of the State 

 of Maine, and in fact the western part, as far south as the 

 Dead River region, abounds witli bear, deer, caribou and 

 some moose. Should this territory seem too small, the 

 Dc>minion of Canada can be added to the list. Two of us 

 while camping on the north side of Moose River last No- 

 vember, concluded to explore some of those snow-capped 

 ranges which lie ten or twelve miles distant from our 

 camp. So we packed up our kit with provisions for a 

 week, and shouldering guns set forth. The second after- 

 noon we reached the foot of the range, stuck up our can- 

 vas tent, cut some wood and finished the day looking for 

 signs, which proved to be numerous in all directions. The 

 snow in the valleys at this time was scant 2in. deep upon 

 the ground, and 'as the leaves were frozen, successful 

 stalking was out of the epiestion. But as several fresh 

 trails of caribou seemed to be unnuspiciously moving 

 around, we decided to give them a trial early next morn- 

 ing. The night passed off slowly as repeated turns had 

 to be taken in replenishing the fire. Morning came, and 

 after breakfast we set out to climb the mountain, which 

 it took two hours and a half to accomplish. 



The snow became deeper and deeper at every step until 

 we found ourselves wading through 18in. Short ly after 

 reaching the summit, we struck a fresh trail of caribou 

 which we followed over into a sag in the mountain, where 

 we came upon a regular yard, packed and trodden down 

 hard, as they apparantly come in from all directions to 

 He down and rest over "night. Old and fresh beds were 

 there in profusion, some of them showing tracks of the 

 hoof 6in. in diameter. The bark from numerous small 

 saplings had been scraped by the bulls in burnishing up 

 their antlers higher than I could reach. After looking 

 this ground over carefully we took out upon a fresh trail, 

 following but a short distance to where the game had 

 either heard or winded us and taken, fright, leading off 

 over the sidehill at a fearful pace. Being convinced that 

 further attempts to sight the herd would prove unavail- 

 ing, we turned, and by a circuitous route made back to 

 camp. 



The next t wo days were spent like the first in ascending 

 the summit early in the morning, and following fresh 

 trails till the game was started, when it would be given 

 up and a return made to camp. 



We now waited two days for a change of weather, when 

 the snow fell, to our disgust, 20in. during one day and 

 part of a night, compelling us to hasten back to the home 

 camp near the railroad, thus ending our hunt for caribou 

 for the season. 



Notwithstanding this seeming ill-luck, we still flatter 

 ourselves that had we been there one month earlier in the 

 season, to have taken advantage of the first few light 

 snows, we could have got within range of this game as 

 easily as up to the Virginia deer. 



From what I saw as well as learned from a not^d hunter 

 of that vicinity about the caribou, T think it holds its own 

 against hunters and the inroads of civilization, better than 

 any other of the deer family. The peculiar construction 

 of "its feet enables it to scurry off on top of a light snow 

 quite like a rabbit, or on top of a thin crust where a dog 

 would hardly venture. It never frequents by night lakes 

 or ponds to feed or fight flies, to be potted over by the 

 jack-hunter; nor can it be run to water by dogs in sum- 

 mer. It is seldom )f ever obliged to yard, as the moose 

 or deer, for deep snows in winter, thus eluding both the 

 jack and crust-hunters as well as the hound. The only 

 successful mode of capture being by stalking upon a 

 light snow, it would seem to be, and probably is, about 

 the only animal we have that can not be successfully 

 legislated into the game bag. Notwithstanding it has 

 been stalked by the Indian as well as the white man for 

 many years past, it still roams over the wooded highlands 

 of the Pine "Tree State in large herds, and will furnish 

 ample recreation for future sportsmen after most other 

 game on the continent has become extinct. Cap Look. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The later re jorts from the Maine hunting and fishing- 

 regions indicate that the people are just digging out from 

 one of the worst snowstorms and cold snaps on the records 

 of that by -no-means warm State. The snow is remark- 

 ably deep in the woods. This is favorable, so far, to the 

 moose and deer, but the danger is ahead. Such snows are 

 liable to be covered in March and April by crusts. The 

 deep snows of a year ago saved the moose and deer, ex- 

 cept in the vicinity of the lumber camps; for these snows 

 'were not followed by crusts. This year the worst may 

 be vet to come. 



There is very little money in the hands of the Fish and 

 Game Commission to do the work of protecting this most 

 noble of game, hence the hopeful hunter of the legitimate 

 season must look to kind nature to conserve the game. 

 No hunting could have been done in the woods of Maine 

 for at least twenty days the last of January, and it has 

 taken at least a week into February to render the roads 

 in the settlements passable; so that nearly a month of the 

 time of danger is past. Recent letters from the Maine 

 lake regions, or rather the nearer lake regions, indicate 

 that very little hunting was done after the close season 

 began, even dining the few days of pleasant weather and 

 little snow the firot of January. 



Mrs. Sessions writes from the South Arm, Richardson 

 Lake, that the hunting generally stopped as soon as the 

 law came on. She also writes that two caribou were 

 killed on or near the lake road, just before Christmas. 

 Hence it would seem that the caribou of the monstrous 

 track, which set so many of the sportsmen crazy, who 

 were shown the great footprints lust summer and a year 

 ago, that this old fellow has fallen. Still there may be 

 more of them. The theory is that this game animal is 

 also on the increase, under the protection that is granted 

 by the well disposed hunters. I am very glad to be able 

 to state that poaehi-g is not the order of the day in the 

 vicinity of Andover, Indeed the sentiment is better 

 there than at Upton, only a few miles further to the 

 west. 



Again Mrs. Sessions writes that a couple of hunters 

 stopped with her to dinner a day or two before Christinas. 

 They had succeeded in killing a deer and they invited 

 her to go down to the wharf and shc it. She went, and 

 as she writes, "J have been mad with myself ever sir be; 

 the little creature looked so pretty and' so innocent! I 

 wish that I had never seen it. I cannot understand why 

 it is that men want to kill all that is pretty and harmless 

 in the woods," Well, if our wives, our mothers and our 

 sisters were the only hunters, there would be little need 

 of protective game laws. But not so with the fish pro- 

 tective laws; for I could give the readers of the good 

 Forest and Stream the names of a number of ladies who 

 are perfect trout killers with the fly-rod, but they "don't 

 want their names mentioned. - ' Some of them are re- 

 markably fund of trolling, too, and one I know has a 

 record of two over 41b. trout in one day. Then there is 

 another lady, a little afraid of a boat or a canoe, but she 

 does delight in standing on our wharf at the camp and 

 catching chubs by the hour. Her record must be up 

 among the bushels" of chubs. Indeed, last summer she 

 kept our bait pails nearly full of minnows; only saving 

 the little ones from her chubbing. Well, that makes us 

 think of being there again. Only about three short 

 months and the time will have come. Mrs. Sessions 

 writes that the ice is very poor and made up largelv of 

 snow. Indeed, one of the lumber toating teams broke 

 in at the Narrows the other day, and the horses were 

 drowned, so poOr is the ice. Such ice should go out early; 

 but very much depends on the April and May weather. 



Special. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have offered $25 for the conviction of any person, 

 during this close season, for killing moose, deer or cari- 

 bou in the State of Maine. The notice will appear in the 

 Lewiston Falls Journal. Who will do likewise to make 

 it warm for them? N. C. L. 



Salem, Mass. 



AT CLOSE QUARTERS WITH A BUCK. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The following extracts are from a letter written by my 

 nephew, who is attached to a surveying party in Colorado. 

 They may interest some of your readers. — F. 



Rifle Creek, Col., Jan. 9.— Dear Uncle Frank: Per- 

 haps you may be astonished to hear from such a place, 

 but it is a fine country for large game. I received a letter 

 from father the other day in which he stated that 

 you were thinking of coming out here. Let me write a 

 hint or two just as if you were starting to-morrow. Like 

 a monster fool, I was told to buy a .44-40 Winchester, 

 73 model magazine, "it was always easy to get ammuni- 

 tion." I did so, but sold it for half price before 1 had 

 been here two weeks. I have ordered a .45-90 single 

 Winchester with Lyman sights, one that will kill. The 

 best time to hunt blacktail deer is in November, then the 

 bucks are very fat and are traveling down from the back 

 mount ains to 'the valleys. 1 have seen eight or nine hun- 

 dred in a bunch, but there are usually from five to thirty. 

 The greatest number I ever killed in one day Avas seven, 

 it is one thing to see them and another to get them, not 

 to speak of packing them into camp. 



The place where I went was about six or seven miles 

 from the head of the ditch on which I am at work, there 

 is a horse trail all the way up to a good log cabin where I 

 camped, it is on what is called the "oid Ute hunting 

 ground." Thesurfaceis rolling and covered with aspen and 

 patches of bunch grass, there are no rattlesnakes, no flies, 

 in fact nothing but deer and an occasional elk, there are 

 plenty of bears and motmtain lions, but it is very seldom 

 that one is seen, it is always an accident if you run on 

 one. It is absolutely essential to have at least three 

 blankets, as it freezes every night in the year but is warm 

 and hot at noon. At this time there are plenty of deer 

 within a half mile of our camp, but the bucks are lean 

 and the snow is so deep upon the sidehills that it is hard 

 to get them after shooting one. 



The Denver & Rio Grande Railroad runs to (xiemvood 

 Springs, from whence we run due east for 21 miles by 

 stage or horse, thence on a random line N. 45 J E. for 10 

 miles, when you are hedged in by deer, or at least you 

 would have been this past season. About a week ago a 

 ranchman wanted me to go up with him to look for a 

 pony of his that had strayed, so I got my horse and a 

 .45-70 rifle, he called his dog and we went up back of the 

 road not more than a quarter of a mile till we saw a band 

 of six deer. Winslow fired at a big buck and evidently 

 missed. I fired through the aspen timber; the bullet 

 went along the skin of the deer's back and plowed up the 

 snow beyond. At this he turned and walked toward us, 

 about 150yds. off. Winslow shot and I fired, I shot and 

 Winslow fired till the deer caved in on the snow. The 

 underbrush was so thick that it was hard to get a good 

 shot. I was nearer and ran down to him. I was just 

 going to shoot into the buck of his head, for I saw he was 

 not dead, when Winslow came up and said "Don't shoot!" 

 so I stepped back a yard or two from the deer's tail, ex- 

 pecting to see some fun when he started to cut the buck's 

 throat; I knew there would be some kicking. At that 

 instant the dog came up and made a dash for the deer's 

 head, upon which the buck starts up, wheels about and 

 makes one jump at me. I had no time to aim, or in fact 

 to bring my rifle up, but pulled it off at him. I found 

 afterward that the bullet struck his face and ground 

 along his neck under the skin. At the shot he rushed 

 away out in the open, but the dog brought him to bay and 

 I gave him one between the horns for a finisher. He 

 was not three feet from me when he turned. As he was 

 weighed and not found wanting in the regulation 2501bs., 

 I should not care to have been punched with his points, of 

 which he had seventeen in all. P 



EXPLANATIONS AND FELICITATIONS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Please allow me space in your columns to straighten 

 out a little your newsy correspondent "Special. At 

 present he seems to have been thrown off the scent of 

 Maine deer poachers, and it seems too bad for him to get 

 80 very heated on the wrong track. In your issue of Jan. 

 19 was a communication in which he gives our Phillips 

 Phonograj)h a general "sitting down on." The cau>e of, 

 his wrath seems to be mostly the following item, which 

 I give in full as it appeared in that paper: 



O. B. Curtis, of Gorhava, X. H., has been stopping at West 

 Phillips the past week. Curtis, be it remembered, is tiie boy who 

 figured so conspicuously in the fight when the Phonograph .rumbo 

 hear was killed. Ho arrived too late this year for a bear hunt, 

 but on the first day of January succeeded in capturing a fine deer, 

 which betook to his home the next day to present to his many 

 friends. Go for him, George. 



Now, the doer referred to was a dear young lady, as 

 appears from this marriage notice prinled in the same 

 issue of the Phonograph: 



Phillips, Jan. 1, by Rev. T. N. Kewley, Mr. G. Bert Curtis, of 

 Gorhani, N. H., and Miss Carrie E. Kempton, of West Phillips. 



"Special" goes on in this way in regard to such wicked 

 business: 



This item was written from West Phillips, Me., and the sports- 

 man mentioned was from New York, it in against the law to 

 ship game out of mat State, The George mentioned is Game 

 Warden George D, Buntoon, of Rangeley. The deer was killed 

 after the season wan closed, and yet the local paper has no word 

 of encouragement for the game warden; neither is it in sympathy 

 with the enforcement of wholesome statutes for the protection of 

 what might be made of great value to the locality where the paper 

 is published. 



Now, to make everything pleasant, do you not think it 

 would be about the correct thing for "Special" to express 

 a couple of boxes of choice Havanas up this waj? I will 

 do bim the favor to see that they are passed around. 



For the further benefit of "Special" I will state that 

 there are four hunters on Dead River by the name of 

 Douglas. Two days ago I saw a man with whom I am 

 well acquainted and whose word I consider above ques- 

 tion, who is spending the winter on the Spencer, which 

 is a stream that runs into Dead River. The moose were 

 all killed in that vicinity, one within a mile and a half 

 of his camp. He says that as far as he knows there is 

 not a suspicion enter, ained there that any man has killed 

 more than one moose. The names of the hunters who 

 are credited with the killing are as follows: Andrew 

 Douglas, his son, GrUfl Douglas, Joe St. Ober (Indian), 

 Ike James and a Mr. Savage. These are the facts asthpy 

 were told to me by a man who I am sure would tell them 

 as nearly right as he knew. It may be that the law has 

 been broken there, but what is the use of accusing a 

 man or men through the public press with only suspicion 

 on which to base the charges? I do not wish to shield a 

 guilty moose killer in the least, neither do I wish to see 

 an innocent man wrongfully accused. 



Fred C. Barker. 



Rangelet, Maine. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I learn, by way of the daily papers, that the monster 

 moose, killed in the Dead River region this winter, and 

 of which the Forest and Stream has already had an ac- 

 count, is being mounted for the Smithsonian Institute. 



Another well-known sportsman and celebrated guide is 

 gone — that is into the ranks of matrimony. The Boston 

 Herald says that "One of the happiest of the occasions that 

 are always happy, was that of the marriage of Capt. Fred 

 C. Barker of Camp Bema and Rangeley steamboat fame, 

 to Miss Ella F. Kimball of Rangeley, Me. The event took 

 place at Rangeley. Feb. 2. There are few men better 

 known to the numerous sportsmen who visit that attiac- 

 tive region than Oapt. Fred, and there are few to whom 

 more hearty congratulations will be extended. The cap- 

 tain lias been wedded to his steamers in the summer, and 

 to his bunting and trapping expeditions in winter. None 

 have been more successful in pleasing the sportsmen who 

 have patronized him, and his woods expeditions have 

 ripened into a knowledge of the forest and its inhabitants 

 at once practical and valuable. But the wonder to the 

 sportsmen will be 'how he came to go and do so?' and 

 whether he could have been meaitating such a step when 

 he has been on those long tramps, alone through the. 

 woods, to Parmachenee, to see his triend John Danforth? 

 Oapt. Fred is well-known in Boston from his lectures on 

 hunting and trapping." 



The readers of the Forest and Stream are also ac- 

 quainted with Capt. Fred, and thousands of them will 

 join in congratulations; but they will hardly wish him 

 too many repetitions of the day. The captain is a warm 

 friend of this same Forest and Stream, and copies of the 

 latest numbers are generally to be found on his little 

 steamers as they ply across the lakes in summer time. 



Special. 



DEER DRIVING IN DAKOTA. 



[?OR the last hunt on the last day in 1887, we left town 

 at 9 o'clock A.M., and drove about three miles 

 north. The day was stormy, and one of the worst of the 

 season. The dogs were put out about 10 o'clock, and in 

 a very few minutes they were on the fresh tracks of two 

 deer. The wind blew so fiercely that we could not hear 

 the dogs when south of us for more than an eighth of a 

 mile, and often not then. Mr. O. F. D. was standing in 

 an old wood road, and hearing the hounds near by looked 

 up, and there stood a fine large doe. With double-bar- 

 reled shotgun, loaded with buckshot, at a distance of 

 40yds., he fired and missed the deer; but he declared he 

 could have killed a chicken or a rabbit at the same shot. 

 About the same time a large buck with immense horns 

 came trotting slowly past Mr. T. G. He said he was so 

 near that he was certain he could hit the deer's neck, 

 and shot at it; but scored a clean miss and saw the deer 

 bound away. Mr. R. and Mr. W. had good shots, all 

 missing. W© ought to have brought home at least four 

 deer. But these same gentlemen have brought in lots of 

 them, making fine shots and having fine sport. 



The hounds are slow, very slow; a man can walk as 

 fast as they go; and if a deer is in sight, they seem to pay 

 no attention to it, but to the track. A fast hound would 

 not live here forty-eight hours, as they would be shot; 

 but every one knows that these dogs do not drive deer 

 out of the country, and the deer are not afraid of them, 

 and keep only a short distance ahead. There never were 

 known to be so many deer so near town, W„ 

 Bismarck. Dakota, Jan. 5. 



