306 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 10, 188^. 



OLD GATES. 



I DO not know how lie came by that name, but he had 

 borne it for several years and was well known by it 

 to all the hunters of that region of country, when it was 

 my good fortune to behold this gigantic specimen of the 

 Vhginia deer. 



It was early in the winter of 1876, when Devinney, 

 Frank and myself betook ourselves up into Laurel Ridge 

 mountains in central Pennsylvania. There had come an 

 unusually heavy fall of snow for the time of the year, and 

 we had before arranged to meet when the hrst good track- 

 ing snow should come. So when the white flakes began 

 to fall, the telegraph wa3 put to work, and the arrange- 

 ments soon made. When the noon train stopped at the 

 little station where we were to leave the road for the 

 mountain, three men arrayed in hunting rig alighted, to 

 try for the first hunt of the season. We were so anxious 

 to be under way that we did not wait to get dinner; but 

 filling our pockets with crackers and cheese, we took a 

 bee line for the "gap of rocks." 



When we left the road and began the ascent of the 

 mountain proper, we found it a trackless wilderness of 

 snow, which was 18in. deep on the level, and when 

 ascending the long steep stretches, it was more than 2ft. 

 deep. You may judge the amount of labor it required on 

 my part to get to the summit, which was one continual 

 ascent, when I tell you that 1 had not walked three miles 

 in any one day for a year. Frank was a long-legged, 

 greyhound of a man, while Devinney was a hunter of 

 thirty years experience. I did not say anything, but kept 

 a stiff upper lip, and waded on, knowing that the struggle 

 would not last forever, and if pluck wouli make up for 

 deficiency of trained and hardened muscle, I would come 

 out about as well as they did in the evening. After a long 

 time some one called a halt to rest, and I was not that 

 one. 



We reached the summit and began the hunt. When 

 we reached our stopping place for the night it was dark. 

 We entered the house, and asked if we could get to stay 

 all night. Besides ourselves, there were five other hunt- 

 ers in the house; but we stayed. When the supper was 

 placed on the table, and I took a good survey of it, I 

 thought I could easily eat everything there was on the 

 table and then have room for more. But this was not 

 the first time a hungry hunter's eyes were larger than his 

 stomach; for when all eight of us had eaten all we wanted, 

 and it was no small amount, there seemed to be enough 

 for as many more. 



The next morning we ate breakfast before daylight, 

 and as soon as we could see, were on our way to see how 

 the deer had passed the night. When near the summit of 

 the range we saw an immense deer track. It was so 

 large that it required close inspection to assure ourselves 

 that it was a deer which had made it, and not a two-year 

 old steer. As it was the largest deer track I had ever 

 seen, I measured it, and found it to be 3iin. wide. He 

 had gone down the mountain, so we arranged that two 

 should follow the track while the third one should watch 

 the crossing on the other side of the ridge. We did this, 

 and when half way down the mountain we jumped him 

 out of a thicket. We did not see him , but we heard him 

 going, and saw the proof of his immense power in the 

 strides he made going up the steep and rocky ground. 



When we came nearly up to where we had struck his 

 track, we knew by his zigzag way that he was not badly 

 frightened, and would lie down as soon as he had passed 

 the ridge. We held a council of war to determine how 

 to entrap him. We determined that Devinney, as the 

 •most experienced hunter, should take the track, while we 

 should flank him on both sides. And all Avereto go slow, 

 so as to find him in his bed. We followed this rule until 

 we were near the summit, when Frank's anxiety to get 

 the shot got the better of his senses, and I saw him begin 

 to stretch those long legs of his. It was not long until I 

 saw that he was so much ahead of the line, and was rush- 

 ing up with so much noise, that the hunt was spoiled. 

 So I swung around, as I was below them, so as to stay the 

 deer if he attempted to go down the mountain. I had not 

 much more than passed the ridge, where I could get a good 

 outlook, when I heard them talking above me. I knew if 

 he had stopped he would break cover when he heard them. 

 I kept advancing cautiously, with my Winchester cocked 

 and ready to fill his hide with lead if he came my way. 

 In a few minutes I saw the glint of his back as it ap- 

 peared above the logs as he was sneaking away, about a 

 hundred yards below me. I just had time to get into an 

 opening between two trees where there were no logs, and 

 had no time to get a good sight even then, when with a 

 burst of speed that I never saw equaled, he started for 

 safer regions. As he flew past I pulled on him, but his 

 speed was so terrific that I did not get there quick enough, 

 and for that time I had lost my chance. But I had the 

 satisfaction of knowing that I had seen and shot at Old 

 Gates, the most noted deer on the whole range. Just 

 where I had shot at him the ground was free of stones, 

 and inclined in the direction in which he w s going. We 

 measured his tracks and found that many of his leaps 

 cleared 80ft. at a bound, and I am sure his back was at no 

 time more than Oft. from the ground. 



This was my first experience with him, but by no means 

 my last. That deer fascinated all the hunters of the 

 range, and we gloried in chasing Mm day after day, 

 although we were so mad at him for the tricks he played 

 on us and his persistency in leading us long and useless 

 chases, seeming to take special delight in getting in our 

 way on the coldest days, and in the roughest weather, 

 and when we had followed liim fifteen or twenty miles, 

 with the thermometer twenty below zero, and at night 

 be compelled to leave him in the same thicket from which 

 we started him in the morning. What a cunning old 

 rascal he was. Years of experience had made him very 

 wise. He seemed actually to delight in being chased, and 

 in laughing to himself as he reached home safely at night, 

 that another hunter could boast of having shot at Mm, 

 wMle he could tell the younger generation how many 

 hundred bullets had whistled harmlessly past Mm. We 

 judged Mm to be seven years old when I first saw Mm, 

 and for the next ten years I either saw him or his track. 

 Every hunter in the mountain had had a shot at Mm at 

 some time, and several of us had sent the hot lead after 

 him many times, but he seemed to lead a charmed life. 

 Hundreds of deer were killed around Mm, but he went 

 unharmed. I never knew any hunter who had the hardi- 

 hood to claim that he had ever drawn blood on him. 



I shall never forget one exceptionally cold day when he 

 led two of us a chase. We started him in the morning. 



He dodged us and took the extreme edge of the mountain 

 where it broke away into a valley, and keeping the ragged 

 edge, where a goat would have thought twice before ven- 

 turing, knowing that we would not look for him there, 

 he passed us, went down through a deep hollow at a rat- 

 tling pace and up the face of another mountain. Here he 

 lay down behind a bush on a bald point, where he could 

 see and laugh at us as we toiled along over the rocks, in 

 danger of breaking our necks, for two miles. He waited 

 there until we were within 200yds. of him, when he 

 showed us his wlute flag and was off for the wilderness. 



We followed for about a mile when we suddenly came 

 to the end of the track. We took the back track and 

 found where he had jumped off to one side and actually 

 lay within 30yds. of lis when we passed. When he saw 

 us turn back he commenced breaking brush in another 

 direction. He played us that way for half a day, and do 

 what we would, he would have some new trick for the 

 next turn. We shot at Ms flag several times, but when 

 the bullet got there he was somewhere else. In the midst 

 of our twisting and turning after him a mountain fog 

 came down on us and we were lost. As we hunted our 

 way out I thought several times I could hear Ms footsteps 

 as he followed us, and his laugh as the hunters were 

 hunted. Thus he lived among the mountain summits 

 durhig the ten years that I knew Mm. 



One cold morning in the winter of 1886 a hunter who 

 had often shot at him, an'd who had boasted that he would 

 some day bring him in, was out on the Five Points watch- 

 ing. Old Gates had been out late the night before, and 

 as he was leisurely making Ms way home, thinking of his 

 latest escape, when he came unwittingly in sight of the 

 hunter. The long-wished-for opportunity had come. The 

 long rifle barrel came steadily into line, the trigger was 

 pressed, the bullet sped true to the aim, and the rifle 

 which had always been true when aimed at other game, 

 but false when turned against this old monarch, was 

 true to its duty, and Old Gates sunk in his tracks and 

 poured out Ms royal blood on the mountain top he 

 had loved so well. When he was brought in the 

 hunter was very much elated over his success, but as we 

 looked upon that mighty form every one felt as if he had 

 lost a friend. From that time hunting on that lange had 

 lost half its charm. We looked in vain for the giant's 

 foot-mark, but it was gone forever. How appropriate 

 that he should meet his death amid the high solitudes of 

 the mountain summits where he had held successful lord- 

 si dp against all claimants for seventeen years! How glad 

 we were that he did not meet the end tMough lingering 

 wounds, but was permitted to sink down without a strug- 

 gle and yield up his glorious life, and die as a king dies. 



Cleveland, Ohio. HOMERTJS. 



BRUIN FINDS A CHAMPION. 



O ALEM, Mass. — Editor Forest and Stream: In vour 

 O last issue you intimate that the New England find 

 Canadian black bear is not the savage creature we nave 

 all been taught to believe him. I think you are mistaken 

 in your estimate if you infer from the new style of news- 

 paper stories that brain has lost his brutishness. The 

 black bear of Maine is to-day the black bear of yesterday, 

 not a bit milder of disposition nor weaker of limb nor 

 shorter of claw. Here are two reports to substantiate my 

 view of the case, both from a Maine paper: 



"Recently, an old man of eighty years, living at East 

 Sullivan, who had been troubled for some time by the 

 depredations of a bear, set a spring gun for him. Going 

 to the trap, Sunday, he found the bear wounded. 

 Attempting to despatch him, the bear attacked him and 

 knocked him down, clawing his head and tearing the 

 flesh badly. A neighbor came to his assistance, and with 

 an axe attempted to kill the bear, wMch was still on the 

 prostrate man. The handle of the axe being broken, he 

 failed to kill him, and then loaded a gun and shot him 

 and extricated the old man from his unlucky predicament. 

 He was found to be badly hurt and it was necessaiy to 

 take twenty stitches in dressing his wounds. The bear 

 weighed three hundred pounds. 



"Mr. John R. Sullivan and two other young men of 

 Whitneyville, went up to Fletcher Brook last week on a 

 hunting crmse, and wdiiie they went separately in differ- 

 ent directions, Sullivan came up to four bears, two old 

 and two young ones. The young ones ran up a tree, while 

 one of the old ones stood up and showed fight. Sullivan 

 (having a repeating rifle) fired and hit him. The bear 

 was about 30yds. off, and made at Sullivan upon the jump; 

 he kept firing at him until he was close up, and the fourth 

 ball dropped him at the muzzle of the rifle. The bear wag 

 a large old customer, had lost part of a paw in a trap some 

 time ago. The other bears let him alone, and as he had 

 had a fearful time with old bruin, he did not care to fol- 

 low them. This one was 7ft. long from his nose to the 

 root of his tail; had some battles before, as a charge of 

 buckshot was found under the skm of the head, wMch 

 had completely healed over." 



As a sequel to the first paragraph comes the news that 

 the man, Simon Harvey, died of the wounds received in 

 the scrimmage; and the weight of the bear has been run 

 up to 4001bs. And here is a letter written to me by one of 

 my brothers in Maine: 



Roxbdry, Me., Oct. 2.— Yesterday I went up to my 

 traps, and found one gone, hook and line; the bear went 

 some five rods and snagged up, but tore the small tree 

 all into slivers and went on. After this I was surprised 

 to see how little trail the bear left. There were large 

 ledges that she went over. The ground was very dry and 

 the new leaves had fallen some after the bear had gone. 

 At last I gave up for the first time and went home for 

 Prince. The ground was so dry and it had been so long 

 that I had but little hope that Prince could help me. 

 When I got home Elder York was just driving away, but 

 when he heard the news he put up his horse and went 

 with us. We went up to the place and turned Prince 

 loose; he knew what was up; he did not run off after 

 rabbits, but would circle around and come back and start 

 out anew. With the help of Elder York I ran the trail 

 away from the ledges mto the woods and followed it with 

 great difficulty and very slow. Prince kept beating the 

 woods ahead; bye and bye he did not come lack, and. 

 after a while we heard that welcome and longed for 

 sound. Prince had opened, and the great woods re- 

 sounded with his angry barking. He was a long way off, 

 but the day was so still we could hear. Elder York 

 thought best to stick to the trail, but I did not fear to 

 trust Prince, so we rushed on pell mell, and after a long 

 race came to Prince and the bear. She was solid at 



^ast. We soon saw why she did not leave mows 

 trail; she had eaten the clog nearly all away: what 

 was left was about like a stick of stove wood. She 

 had but one forefoot, and that was in the trap. Prince 

 was furious; he would snap her right in the side 

 of her head time after time. I cleared her and let 

 her go. Any one who believes that a bear cannot run 

 down hill ought to have been there, she went down the 

 hill as fast as a man could run, It was a mixture of bear, 

 leaves and the dog. Prince would fetch her up, but she 

 would rush on again at once. Soon Prince cried out with 

 pain; she had bitten him, but he stuck to her. Elder 

 York feared we should lose her, it was such a terrible 

 scrimmage, and said if I could shoot the bear and not hurt 

 the dog I had better do so. I got the little rifle ready and 

 ran on. She soon landed on her back hi the hollow, and 

 on the instant I sent a bullet through her. It struck be- 

 tween her forelegs and went out of her back, making a 

 big hole and tearing one lung. She up and off as though 

 nothing had been done, but after a short run began to 

 falter a little, so that the Elder struck her in the head 

 with the axe; when he struck her the third time she went 

 down and the big knife ended her. 



Prince was proud it was easy to see, as he stood by the 

 bear with me patting him on the back. Prince is set up 

 Mgher than ever, he is getting so desperate I fear he will 

 be killed by some bear. There is no trouble now in hav- 

 ing a terrible time if we can find a bear track. The bear 

 had cubs, she had already begun to eat beech nuts. I have 

 lost seven sheep and lambs. She was raising her cubs on 

 fresh lamb. Darnel Annis, Millsfield, N. H, has a hound 

 that will hang on a bear three days and nights— has done 

 it. We found it a hard case for one desperate dog to stop 

 a large bear, even if she had no forefeet. Prince would 

 probably put a yearling up a tree alone. I took the foot 

 off from this bear sevaral years ago when she was a cub, 

 and was being raised on my sheep just as she was raising 

 her cubs this year. Silas. 



MARYLAND DUCKS. 



TUESDAY was the first day for duck shooting on the 

 Susquehanna under the Maryland law. The season 

 begins Nov. 1 and lasts till April 1, but shooting can be 

 done oMy on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The 

 fall season for bluewing teals starts Aug. 15 and lasts till 

 Oct. 1, during wMch no license is required. Within these 

 limits black ducks, a few sprigtails and baldpates are 

 shot; but it is no such sport as is enjoyed during the 

 regular season. 



The duckmg fields on the Susquehanna River are known 

 and talked about all over the United States where sports- 

 men live, and are probably the finest in the world, Duckg 

 are found in abundance in other tributaries of the Chesa- 

 peake, in Albemarle and Pamlico sounds, in North Caro- 

 lina, in Florida, in tributaries to the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 in many other bodies of water, but they have no such 

 flavor of the canvasbacks, black and blue heads that 

 feed on the flats at the mouth of the Susquehanna River, 

 The flavor is due to the peculiar diet upon which they 

 feed. This is the wild celery. The ducking fields of the 

 Susquehanna are sharply limited by statute. The north- 

 ern line begins at the lighthouse on the shore, in front of 

 the town of Havre de Grace, on the Harford county 

 side, runs across to Carpenter's Point, on the Cecil county 

 side, and the southern fine is from Turkey Point, on the 

 Cecil side to a spot half a mile north of Locust Point, and 

 thence along Spesutia Island shore, keeping everywhere 

 a quarter of a mile from the beach and the adjacent 

 mainland, till the shore at or near Oakington is reached. 

 The line thence runs along the shore to the starting point 

 at the lighthouse. Gunners must keep strictly a quarter 

 of a mile out. The distance from the north to the south 

 line is probably four miles, and between the eastern and 

 western limits about six miles. Tins embraces a large 

 area of the finest feeding grounds for ducks on this con- 

 tinent. The best part of the shore is on the Cecil side. 

 The celery is thick there and the ducks are not disturbed 

 by the noises from the towns, though they do not have 

 much rest from gunners on the legal days. 



The wild celery is the wild duck's daintiest food. They 

 will leave any other feeding ground and come to the Sus- 

 quehanna shore. The water in which it grows is fresh, or 

 very slightly brackish. Below Spesutia Island the water: 

 is saltish, and the ducks do not feed there in great num- 

 bers. This wild celery is a long ribbon grass, which grows 

 so tMck in summer that sometimes with difficulty a boat 

 can be forced tMough it. It takes root in the mud, and 

 its top comes to the surface of the water with the tide. 

 In winter the top dies and is carried off in masses. The 

 white, toothsome root, about 4 or Sin. long, is what the 

 wild duck searches for. He dives for it, and feeds upon 

 it with the greatest delight. It resembles somewhat Mie 

 wire grass. The peculiar character of the bottom, en- 

 riched as it is by the constant wasMng down of the fertile 

 sod of Cecil and Harford, and the fresh water makes it 

 grow in great abundance and gives it its peculiar taste. 

 The grass does not grow to any extent below Spesutia 

 Island. Ducks that feed in salt water, on fish and other 

 food, are never of as good flavor nor as fat as those which 

 get their livmg from fresh bottom. Old residents, who 

 study closely every tlnng connected with these shores, say 

 the wild celery seems as tMck here as ever — if anything, 

 thicker. At the beginning of the season, before the high 

 winds and tides have taken it off, it is not uncommon for 

 the decoy clucks to get full of it, or "grassed," as the gun- 

 ners say, which causes trouble. The shore, however, is 

 getting more and more shoal, and it is feared that hi from 

 10 to 15 years the gunning field will be decreased by at 

 least one-half. 



No gunner is allowed to cross the gunning line before 

 5 A. M. If he does he has to pay $25 fine and it may be 

 forfeit his outfit. Rich and enthusiastic gunners from 

 the cities sometimes pay the fine in order to continue the 

 sport. Counting in all the shooters from both counties, 

 about 250 licenses are issued yearly. At the opening of 

 the season canvasbacks bring on an average |2 a pair, 

 redheads 75 cents to $1 and blackheads 50 cents a pair. 



The best shooting is on the opemng day. The ducks 

 are not frightened and can be more easily approached, 

 and every gunner, having been eager for months to get a 

 shot, goes to work in earnest. The best record ever made 

 in these fields was about eight years ago, when on the 

 openmg day, William Dobson, of Havre de Grace, an ex- 

 pert gunner, killed from a box 540 and burst a fineigun 

 before he stopped. He kept two men busy all day pick- 

 ing up dead ducks. The second gun got at times too hot 



