406 



fDEC. 15, 1887. 



GAME TRANSPORTATION LAWS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I notice in the Dec. 1 number of Forest and Stream, 

 copy of a circular issued by the United States and Amer- 

 ican Express to their agents, cautioning them against 

 receiving game for shipment contrary to law, including 

 five Western States and one Territory. The circular un- 

 doubtedly might have included this and the New Eng- 

 land States as well. I do not wish to be understood as 

 condemning all game laws, but I am not alone in think- 

 ing that the crude laws we are now trying to accustom 

 ourselves to work out very unf ah- results to many of our 

 true sportsmen. For instance, the laws of this State give 

 the hunter a right to kill three deer during open season, 

 but deny him the privilege of shipping more than one 

 carcass home. How the leaving of two carcasses in the 

 woods could preserve the stock of game is a query solved 

 by imagination only. The pretense made to gain such a 

 point was, I believe, that the cutting of the market 

 hunter down to the shipment of one carcass was neces- 

 sary lest he follow up and dispose of this ill-gotten game 

 to his confederate marketmen for the profits attending 

 such a haul. But when we consider the expense of fit- 

 ting out and getting located in the woods in camp, hunt- 

 ing up and bagging three deer and getting them out to a 

 point for shipment, buying a ticket and personally ac- 

 companying them by rail several hundred miles to 

 market in order to comply with the law, does any 

 rational man still claim profits in the transaction? 

 or claim that such a clause of the law was neces- 

 sary to insure game protection? Not one man in 

 ten. and probably not one in twenty could go through 

 all this and (so far as dollars and cents were concerned) 

 come out even. Thus the laws of this State, whether so 

 intended or not, as those of many other States of the 

 Union, provide complete prohibition of the shipment of 

 game out of the State when killed. The game laws of 

 Maine are spoken of by many as worth copying by other 

 States on account of their liberality. Yes, but when a 

 non-resident sportsman goes there to hunt, he can leave 

 his money without any objections being made, and if he 

 kills any game he can leave that too, say the officials. 

 This is considered necessary for the protection and in- 

 crease of game within the State. The Canadian authori- 

 ties, trying also to be very liberal, have enacted that 

 those not domiciled in the Dominion can, by procuring of 

 the Department of Crown Lands a permit, at a cost of 

 $20, kill game, as allowed by law, in open season. But 

 if all or any part of such game is billed or attempted to 

 be taken out of the Dominion, it immediatedly becomes 

 liable to confiscation. I have no knowledge of the 

 amount of revenue thus obtained, but doubt if the 

 Government vaults will need enlarging for some years 

 hence to stow away coin thus collected, nor do I think 

 that Maine or any other State with game laws similar 

 will profit very much financially by such enactments. 



Most of the sportsmen that I am acquainted with, 

 and especially those having a family, go to the woods not 

 for the sole pleasure of taking an outing or of throwing 

 off business cares for a few days or weeks, nor do they go 

 for the mere pleasure of bagging each two or three deer 

 and surfeiting from juicy steaks while in camp, but they 

 go, or rather wish to go late enough in the season so that 

 what game falls to their gun may be kept and a goodly 

 portion of it shipped home, frozen, wrapped and hung 

 away to cut from in serving family and friends during 

 the holidays and some weeks thereafter. The three deer 

 now allowed by law in this State to be killed by each 

 hunter in open season, are amply sufficient to fill the bill 

 of fare as above set forth, and still work no extra 

 depletion of game, or hindrance in the enforcing of the 

 provisions. If a man is going to kill three deer, as the 

 law allows him to do, it certainly can not deplete the 

 total number of game in a less degree, by capturing it in 

 the month of November than though he bagged it in the 

 month of September. Neither can it be argued with any 

 fairness that two of the three deer killed (either to stamp 

 out the market hunter or to enforce any other provision) 

 should be left in the woods, given away or sold to parties 

 residing in the wilderness. It does have the effect, how- 

 ever, of keeping from the woods many sportsmen, 

 especially those living at a distance. If this is what the 

 law intended, then it is so far a success. If it intended 

 to give all parties a fair show of participating in the chase, 

 those living at a distance as well as those near by, then it 

 is a miserable failure and ought to be amended the 

 present winter. Cap Lock. 



Frewsbitkg, N. Y. 



INDIANS AND THE GAME. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The rapid extermination of the noble game in the far 

 West is a loss as serious to the legitimate hunter and 

 trapper as to the ardent amateur sportsman. The first 

 must be kept constantly moving his winter camp into 

 regions less known, more inaccessible, while the other 

 finds a month, or for that matter a whole summer, too 

 short a time to gather the trophies which he covets. 

 Already the buffalo is gone, and the elk, antelope and 

 white-tailed deer are rapidly following in the same course. 

 The mule deer, commonly called the "black-tail," is the 

 only member of its family that can be said to hold its 

 ground. Even the trout streams that four or five years 

 ago teemed with beauteous forms, are now more empty 

 than brooklets near a Catskill Mountain hotel. 



This state of affairs calls for a better enforcement of 

 existing laws rather than for fresh legislation on the sub- 

 ject. Perhaps the class most responsible for the wanton 

 and deliberate destruction and extermination of game is 

 protected, by color and by popular eastern sentiment, in 



Eractices which would land a white man in jail, or visit 

 im with a heavy fine. The Indian is not solely respon- 

 sible for the sportsman's loss, but he is culpable to a 

 greater extent than any one else. 



My first experience with violators of the law was at the 

 headwaters of the American River in California. In the 

 summer of 1883 a camping party from the mining camp 

 of Michigan Bluff determined to take some fish home for 

 winter's consumption. Hook and line were abandoned 

 for giant powder and eight thousand trout were salted 

 down in a single afternoon. The stream has not yet 

 recovered its prestige and in all probability can never 

 again furnish a good day's sport for the passing tourist. 

 In streams tributary to the Columbia a favorite method 

 of securing large bags of trout is by diverting four or five 

 miles of a stream and allowing the waters to flow broad- 



cast over the land until lost by seepage and evaporation. 

 The time chosen is just after spawning is completed. 

 Large fish are easily picked up while floundering in the 

 mud and small fry are left to perish. Too often the 

 brooks are not turned back and have to form a new chan- 

 nel. This method of fishing is the one commonly em- 

 ployed by Shoshones, Utes and Bannocks. 



Along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada the dig- 

 gers kill a great number of mule deer for their hides, but 

 the Bannocks and Arrapahoes are the most ruthless game 

 destroyers of the West. They work upon the belief that 

 it is better to obtain a high price for a single hide than 

 to sell a quantity at a low figure. Even now an occa- 

 sional buffalo robe is brought in, for which they ask $25 

 or $30. Ten years ago an Arrapahoe was well satisfied 

 with $5 for a first-rate buffalo. These Indians do not 

 pretend to observe the law requiring them to remain on 

 their respective reservations. For the last two seasons 

 the Bannocks who should be found only in the southeast- 

 ern portion of Idaho, have hunted the Bruneau and 

 Salmon River country and gone into both Oregon and 

 Nevada. The result is a total destruction of game in the 

 country south of Shoshone Falls. The Arrapahoe bucks 

 of Wyoming are slaughtering thousands of elk and ante- 

 lope for their hides, while their carcasses are left to taint 

 the air. Settlers, too, have no idea that game should be 

 preserved. A few mornings ago I saw a rancher shoot 

 five antelope from his front door. Two hindquarters 

 were taken for his own use and the remainder of the 

 flesh was filled with strychnine for the purpose of poison- 

 ing coyotes. 



The elk is to-day almost extinct in the great Sweet- 

 water region of Wyoming, and is being rapidly driven 

 from the land of the Colorado Utes. I know of but one 

 large band between the Union Pacific and the Yellow- 

 stone, where five years ago there were probably thirty 

 immense herds. In spite of the law, hides are being con- 

 stantly shipped out of the Territory, though buyers and 

 shippers use a certain degree of caution in carrying on 

 their traffic. The Rocky Mountain sheep, partly through 

 his own habits and partly because there is no demand for 

 his hide, is still reserved for the hunter. He is found 

 from the Coeur d'Alene to the southern part of Colorado. 

 For Eastern sportsmen he is most accessible in the west- 

 ern and northern mountains of the Sweetwater region. 

 The bighorn is found in abundance in the Bruneau range, 

 but I believe its central location and favorite breeding 

 ground is between the Teton and Shoshone ranges, im- 

 mediately south of the National Park. 



Now, it is evident that white men who violate the laws 

 can be made to suffer, but what remedy have we against 

 the Indian? He does not need the game, for the Govern- 

 ment feeds and clothes him. His money will go for 

 whisky if it can be procured. He slays as a murderer 

 rather than as a hunter. It is high time that Lo had an 

 effectual quietus put upon him, or our sporting will be 

 confined to coyotes and badgers. Shoshone. 



Cheyenne, Wyo., Dec. 1. 



RABBIT HUNTING WITH UNCLE NED. 



FOR eighty years, as boy and man, had Uncle Ned 

 been with the family on the sugar plantation. His 

 locks were now grizzled and scanty, and his back was 

 much bent, but otherwise the old man was still so hale 

 and vigorous that he had thought proper, some months 

 previous, to take unto himself a new wife. Now, Uncle 

 Ned, in contracting this union, had entirely ignored both 

 magistrate and clergyman, arguing that money was too 

 scarce to waste it upon these useless officials; but he had 

 lately been so persecuted by the younger generation that 

 he had finally given his reluctant consent to have his 

 marriage blessed by the minister, provided, however, 

 that Mr. Gray, the colored preacher, should be content 

 with a fee of $2. On this point he stood firm, and won. 

 The solemnity was arranged to take place on the evening 

 of the coming Saturday. 



Of course Uncle Ned had to provide a feast befitting the 

 occasion, and being a great hunter he determined upon 

 making the rabbits furnish the principal part of the sup- 

 per. As usual he was out of ammunition, and had to 

 come to me on a borrowing expedition, in\dting me at 

 the same time to come and see what a fool those young 

 niggers could make of an old man. By this I could see 

 that he was not yet reconciled to the reckless expenditure 

 of that $2. The old fellow was furnished with powder 

 and shot, but I made him promise to take me along with 

 him, for I had long been curious to ascertain by what 

 means he invariably returned with one or more rabbits 

 from his hunts. My gun had been sent to the city for 

 needed repairs, and I was somewhat in a dilemma 'for a 

 weapon, when I remembered an antiquated pair of duel- 

 ing pistols snugly perched on the top shelf of the book- 

 case, where they had lain for years undisturbed, and it 

 occurred to me that, with their long 12in. barrels and big 

 bore, they would be just the things to turn loose at the 

 bunnies. They were brought down from the shelf, and 

 one of them was given such a cleaning and burnishing 

 that it really would have looked quite a handsome little 

 gun had the stock only been somewhat longer and less 

 crooked. 



Saturday came and I proceeded to hunt up Uncle Ned, 

 whom I could hear in the distant quarters having a lively 

 time with a refractory number of his pack. We had 

 some trouble in locating the said pack, for it was widely 

 scattered, each individual trying to beg or steal some- 

 thing to eat, which I did not wonder at when we finally 

 collected the four of them. Such thin dogs I have never 

 seen since. Uncle Ned had theories of his own upon the 

 feeding of dogs; one was that rabbit hounds should not 

 be fed for three days previous to being brought out in the 

 field, as they were then much more anxious to catch the 

 rabbits, knowing that their dinner depended upon their 

 skill. He had certainly acted on this theory of late, for 

 a more woebegone looking set of curs could not be found 

 anywhere, and yet, when they saw the old man get out 

 his ancient musket, it was astonishing to see how lively 

 they became, frisking around and barking with great 

 energy. 



Uncle Ned led the way to an abandoned old fleld, for 

 years uncultivated and thickly grown over with black- 

 berry bushes, in isolated clumps and again in large 

 patches covering nearly a half acre. Under these the 

 rabbits lurked by hundreds, according to the say so of the 

 old man, who now began showing signs of excitement, 

 and soon exhibited to my wondering eyes his new and 

 original method of hunting. On arriving before a likely- 



looking bush the old fellow began beating it with all his 

 might, m a very dangerous manner, with his musket bar- 

 rel, dancing about in a very extraordinary way, yelling 

 to the top of a screechy old voice, and finally winding up 

 the performance by seizing upon the nearest dog and 

 tossing him as far as he could into the prickly mass, 

 where his yelps and struggles to get away from that sticky 

 neighboorhood caused the remainder of the pack to be- 

 lieve a rabbit in sight, and in they dashed, regardless of 

 everything except to be on hand, when the game was 

 caught. This is what Uncle Ned called "warming up the 

 dogs." The whole affair was so ludicrous that I was 

 laughing with all my might, and did not notice a large 

 cotton-tail that was sneaking away from my end of the 

 bush. He was fortunately seen just in time by little 

 Washington, a diminutive black and tan puppy, whose 

 lately docked tail caused him to back out in a hurry from 

 the briers, and who now very neatly turned the rabbit 

 back to Uncle Ned. He laid him out with a well-directed 

 shot, much to his gratification, for he had scored one be- 

 fore the boss, of whose armament, I could see, he held 

 but a poor opinion. 



The same performance was gone through again a littler 

 further on, but it resulted this time in a blank. As we 

 were proceeding, however, along the banks of a dry ditch,, 

 heavily fringed with tall grass, the dogs roused "out no' 

 less than three rabbits, one of which the big pistol 

 knocked over finely, while Uncle Ned scored a humiliat- 

 ing miss. Of course it was out of the question for our 1 

 famous packs to follow the scent any distance, so they 

 quickly came back. Some acres were gone over without 

 finding game, when the dogs gave tongue again in a 

 damp piece of ground, thickly covered with wild indigo* 

 plants; and a big swamp rabbit came bounding out, pass- 

 ing so close to me that I actually blew off his head, thus 

 scoring two for the pistol to one for the musket, whose 

 owner began to look serious. We hunted in this manner- 

 with ultimate success and misses, varied at one time by a. 

 grand exhibition of agility on the part of Ned, when the 

 dogs had caught and were eating a fine rabbit, which the 

 old man tried in vain to get away from them, but every 

 time he was stooping to catch what remained of the 

 rabbit the dogs would seize it and run off, until they hadl 

 bolted down skin and bones. 



There was never the pleasant music of fine hounds to 

 enliven the hunt, but it must be confessed that for meat- 

 getting qualities Uncle Ned's pack was of service to him, 

 and to me the sport was not so contemptible either, for 

 the noise and excitement was great at times, and of real 

 fun those little dogs and their curious old master furnished 

 a plenty. Uncle Ned's joy was great when we counted 

 out nine fine rabbits as the result of the hunt, of which 

 he had the further satisfaction of claiming five as his 

 own, but I was content with the performance of my little 

 gun. 



Those nine big rabbits were the foundation of the big 

 f east which Uncle Ned gave that evening, upon which 

 occasion the veteran of eighty winters actually danced 

 the breakdown with the blushing bride of seventy 

 springs. Carlos. 



Dorset vriiLE, La. 



His First Possum.— Golden City, Mo., Nov. 17. — "One 

 morning about twelve years ago," said the old settler, 

 John started up the creek to my place after a load of 

 wood. He had never seen a possum, and knew nothing 

 about their habits. He said to me after he reached the 

 house, 'I was driving along through the timber when my 

 dog treed something close to the wagon. I jumped out 

 and went up to the dog, and there up a bush was the 

 blamedest critter I ever saw. It looked like a rat, had a 

 tail like a rat, but was too big for a rat. It sat upon a 

 limb and grinned at me, and when I shook the bush it 

 fell out and killed itself so dead it never kicked.' " — 

 Ozark. 



Wolves in Maine.— Editor Forest and Stream: Some- 

 two or three years ago I reported finding a pack of 

 wolves on my hunting grounds, Townships 7 and 8 r 

 Range 3, Adirondacks. The. report was doubtingly re- 

 ceived by many. I now ^have to record that lumber 

 operators on said grounds state they have repeatedly seen 

 tracks and heard howlings of wolves; and yesterday I 

 met a party of hunters who recently heard the pack and 

 saw their tracks where they were chasing a deer. All 

 my informants are reliable men. — Warfield (Aroostook 

 County, Me,, Dec. 7.) 



A New Wisconsin Preserve.— Milwaukee.— A num- 

 ber of prominent gentlemen and sportsmen of Wisconsin 

 are discussing the project of purchasing 10,000 acres in 

 the central part of the State, to be well inclosed and con- 

 verted into a gigantic preserve, where deer, ruffed grouse, 

 prairie hens, and all other varieties of Wisconsin game 

 shall be cherished and protected forever. This is a Btep 

 in the right direction, which should be emulated by the 

 genuine sportsman of every State in the Union, as it is 

 the only effectual means of saving noble game animals and 

 birds from utter extinction.— W. T. E. 



West Virginia. — I have just returned from a very 

 successful hunting trip in West Virginia. - Had a grand 

 time. Brought down and into camp one fine black bear, 

 two bucks, one a three-snag and the other a four; also 

 several nice turkeys. If time would permit could tell 

 your readers of a few very plain but successful days' 

 tramp.— G. A. S. 



Goshen, N. Y.— Game is very scarce around this vicin- 

 ity, scarcely a quail to be seen. Rabbits few and far 

 between. A few ducks are in the Otter Kill, in Purga- 

 tory Swamp, but are very hard to get at. Fox hunting 

 will soon be all the go. — A. V. 



This is a series of. faithful pictures of life in a corner of Yankee 

 land. The author, Mr. Rowland E. Robinson, has not taken his 

 ideas of Vermont rusticity at second hand. Uncle Lisha and his 

 cronies are sketched from nature. The dialect in which they 

 speak might have been taken down by a, phonograph, so accurately 

 are its eccentricities given hack through the eye to the ear in 

 these pages. Lowell, in the "Riglow Papers," has not hit it off 

 more truly. The local color is as strictly interpreted as the 

 speech. The whole work is a triumph of literary realism which is 

 very welcome now, as it fixes images that are fast vanishing in the 

 blaze of universal education. The stories of courting, of turkey 

 shoots, of fox and coon and deer hunts, and of maple sugar-mak- 

 ing are delightfully told.— New York Journal of Commerce, Bee. 9. 



