448 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



PDeo. 29, 1887. 



PELEG'S EXPERIENCES. 



I.— HE MANAGES TO BECOME THE OWNER OF A GUN. 



THEY were sitting around the camp-fire after supper, 

 rubbing up their guns preparatory for the morrow's 

 hunt. A skein of Indian summer was woven into the 

 weather web just before the close of the open quail sea- 

 son, and it had lured them out to Grinder's sugar camp, 

 where they harl pitched their tent and were having a 

 Bort of half-holiday hunt. Ere the tent pegs were driven, 

 their boyhood nicknames were spoken, Peleg, Jap and 

 Sang—names that some if not all of them had not an- 

 swered to for years. Just how these old names happened 

 to come up, I am sure I do not know. They had better 

 ones, at least ones they preferred answering to at their 

 homes, engaged in the serious business of life, but out 

 there in Grinder's woods the old names claimed remem- 

 brance and got it. 



It was the evening of their second day out, and as nice 

 a bunch of quail was hung to the limb of a little beech 

 close by as one would wish to see. Of course they had 

 famous appetites and equally as famous broiled quail, 

 for I do think that in the matter of broiling game by the 

 camp-fire Jap was hard to beat. Take it all in all, they 

 were a trio of as well-contented mortals as could have 

 been found in a day's journey. Why shouldn't they 

 have been ? It was not every day nor every week, nor, 

 for that matter, every month when they could leave their 

 places of business and go to Grinder's woods and camp 

 out for three or four days. No indeed ! Their outings 

 were usually limited to half days in the well-hunted 

 fields close to town, and so it is no wonder that on this 

 occasion they Avere a trio of happy mortals. I am sure 

 they would have been even with badly broiled birds, let 

 alone the famous ones of Jap's broiling. 

 "Drat the dogl Dura his blamed picter!" 

 "Why, what's the matter, Peleg?" Jap asked. 

 "O, this fool dog," was the answer. "He's gone and 

 licked my cigar — licked it all over. He always was the 

 blamedest fool to lick. Get out !" And old Jab, a sore- 

 eyed cross between a mongrel setter and a mongrel 

 pointer, tucked his tail between his legs and retired in 

 disgrace to his master's side of the tent. 



Peleg was a sort of model man, or at least had been. 

 He had no vices worth mentioning, unless a fondness f or 

 dog and gun be classed as such. He was strictly tem- 

 perate, both at home and abroad; he never used lan- 

 guage "more forcible than elegant," except when he 

 went hunting, and then confined himself to such mild 

 and meaningless expletives as "drat" and "durn" and the 

 like on great provocation. He couldn't chew, and 

 smoked only when Minting, and was so inexpert with 

 the weed that he was unable to keep the mildest cigar 

 between his lips or teeth, whichever it is the smoker 

 does, above four consecutive puffs at a time. After the 

 third or fourth puff he invariably took Ids cigar between 

 the two middle fingers of his left hand, and more than 

 once have I seen him inadvertently and awkwardly stick 

 the ashy and firy end into his mouth, which act was 

 followed by a spitting and sputtering that can better be 

 imagined than described. Being engaged on his gun. 

 Peleg had between puffs laid his cigar on the log beside 

 him, and Jab not having been brought up to cigars and 

 presuming on the good terms usually existing between 

 himself and master, had licked the cigar all over and 

 thereby brought down upon hiui the foregoing anathe- 

 mas. 'Had the cigar been the nice tidbit the poor dog no 

 doubt imagined it to be, and had he swallowed it down, 

 then covenant of affection would have run on unbroken. 

 But to lick his master's cigar — lick it all over with his 

 dog's tongue — that was another thing. 



As the humiliated dog disappeared under the tent, 

 Sang, looking up from his work, asked, "How did you 

 come by that ugly dog anyway, Peleg?" 



Now Peleg is one of the tenderest of hearted men and 

 a very loving, and Sang's question at once aroused his 

 sympathy for his dog. His anger was momentaiy, and 

 he at once replied, ""Why, I don't think he is so very 

 ugly," and after a moment's hesitation he added, "Why, 

 I've seen just lots of dogs that were a great deal uglier 

 than Jab. Come here, poor fellow!" 



And with that Jab bounded out from his place of ban- 

 ishment, scattering more joy than a dozen undisgraced 

 dogs could have done, while Peleg, who always drank 

 freely after smoking, went to the water- jug and swal- 

 lowed a full pint. 



"No, I don't think he is so very ugly, and then he is 

 such a good hunter." 



"Yes, for rabbits and cats," said Sang ironically. 

 Now Jab would run rabbits, that is, when they pro- 

 voked him to it, and that veiy day had started a cat in 

 a bramble thicket, though I must say he was not to 

 blame for that, for the cat was where it ought not to 

 have been, and pretending great fright at the dog, had, 

 after making a great ado, spitting and flaring its tail, 

 run like a streak for the nearest house. But it answered 

 Sang's purpose to make the folly of the cat serve as an 

 excuse for maligning the dog. After a moment he con- 

 tinued: 



"How did you come by that dog, anyhow?" 



By tins time the guns were in order for the next day, 

 and the fire, on which a great pile of brush and sticks 

 and poplar and hickory bark had been thrown, was send- 

 ing its great red, swirling tongue of flame nearly to the 

 tops of the maples, while the black shadows from their 

 grim and sturdy trunks lay in every direction from the 

 fire, like spokes from the blazing center of a great wheel. 

 Peleg was one of your reminiscent men, and it seldom, 

 at any time or place, required much persuasion to launch 

 him into a story, but before a genial camp-fire the slight- 

 est touch was enough to set him going. Sang's question 

 had been asked, and it was not for Peleg to stop to in- 

 quire whether it was asked in earnest or not. 



"You see," he began. "I lived till I was blamed near 

 forty before I took it." 



"Took what?" queried Jap. 



"Why, the hunting fever, and I have had it bad ever 

 since. I don't know whatever could have brought it on, 

 for as I now remember I didirt care much for a gun 

 when a boy, and still less after I grew up to be a man. 

 I've tried to remember what particular thing it was, 

 what book or magazine article that set me a going." 



"O, bother the book and magazine. Go on with the 

 story," put in Sang, who is not much of a book man. 



"Very well, then," answered the story teller. "The 

 first I remember I took a notion to buy a gun. It's 



strange whatever possessed mo! I'm sure I can't imagine 

 whatever put it into my head." 



"Never mind your head!" said the irrepressible Sang. 



"I was about forty then," Peleg went on, "and Nancy 

 and I had been married going on sixteen years, and dur- 

 ing all that time there had never been a gun in the 

 house, and I don't believe I had fired one off. Just how 

 to get one introduced was more than I could see, for I do 

 suppose there never was a woman who is more set against 

 having what she thinks are useless things around a 

 house than Nancy." 



"So I've heard," said Sang, 



"Go on," Jap said gently to Peleg. 



"I thought over the matter for some time," continued 

 he, "and even tried to forget it, and then to reason my- 

 self out of it, but the more I tried to forget and to 

 reason, the more I wanted the gun. It was real down- 

 right curious, wasn't it?" said the story teller, addressing 

 Jap, to which the latter answered, "Yes, very." 



"One day, however, I hit on. apian which I thought 

 would work, and so in a careless-like way I said, 'Nancy, 

 I believe I'll buy a gun.' 'A gun,' says she. 'Why, 

 Morclecai Jones, are you crazy? 1 'No,' I answered with- 

 out blushing. 'And the last year's coal bill unpaid,' she 

 went on aB if not noticing my little 'No,' 'and me a-wear- 

 ing a worked overdress, and you too poor to buy a decent 

 hat, and the stair carpet in rags, and — and— gracious 

 me!' and down she sat at the door step and began fan- 

 ning herself with her hat. But I was prepared for her. 

 I had anticipated something of the sort, and so I said, 

 'The tramps are getting a little too numerous for me in 

 this country. It was only the other night our neighbor 

 Stryker's house was broken into, and some night it will 

 be our turn, and like as not the last one of us will be 

 killed, for there isn't as much as a popgun on the whole 

 place. I don't believe it is safe.' I had calculated the 

 effect of that speech with tolerable exactness. If there 

 is one thing my wife fears more than fire or mad dogs, 

 it is the breaking in of burglars. For sixteen years she 

 had personally seen to the fastening of the doors every 

 night, and had carefully ; looked under every bed and 

 peeked in every closet in search of a burglar before re- 

 tiring, and notwithstanding she had never found one, 

 she confidently expected one to turn up at every search. 

 Sometimes, and especially pf particularly cold and dis- 

 agreeable nights, she woidd forget whether she had 

 bolted a particular door or fastened down a certain win- 

 dow, and about the time I would get snug and warm 

 between the blankets and be dropping off into a doze, 

 she would begin to wonder whether she had bolted that 

 particular door or fastened down that certain window, 

 and it would always end by me going down-stairs to 

 shiver with cold and knock my shinS against the chair 

 rockers and half wish that a burglar would get in just once 

 for the sake of variety. It was no use to try to reason 

 Nancy out of it when she got to doubting about a door 

 or a window, as I sometimes tried to do. The more I 

 reasoned the more she was certain she had forgotten, and 

 when all other arguments failed she was sure to fall back 

 on a feeling or a presentiment — something that I could 

 not argue against — and the upshot was sure to be a tramp 

 down-stairs. One night she wakened me up with a start, 

 and told me that burglars were sawing at the parlor win- 

 dow. I listened, and sin e enough there was the sound of 

 a saw. 'What are we to do?' she exclaimed. 'If I only 

 had a gun!' I said. 'No, but you have none,' she sorrow- 

 fully replied. Our burgla r turned out to be a peach .tree 

 limb sawing back and forth in the wind against the 

 house, but it was a good enough burglar for my purpose, 

 and the more so as our neighbor Stryker's house had 

 been so recently feloniously entered; therefore, when I 

 backed my wish to have a gun by urging the propriety of 

 having it as a defensive weapon against burglars, she 

 saw its use at once, and agreed that if I would get one 

 that wouldn't be dangerous and that wouldn't cost too 

 much, it might be a handy thing to have in the house. 

 The next day I bought this gun, and then for the first 

 time in my life I wanted a dog. Now if there is one 

 thing that Nancy dislikes more than — " 



"O, bother Nancy," exclaimed Sang. "Let's go to 

 bed." And with that he disappeared in the tent, and his 

 comrades were not far behind him. Jab was curled up 

 in his master's place, sleeping the sleep of the honest 

 hunter, which place he exchanged for a comfortable one 

 at his master's feet. The blazing brands flickered and 

 wavered in the night outside; from afar came the "youp, 

 youp" of farm dogs, and on the wings of the silent wind 

 was borne the far distant crow of a dreaming cock; but 

 our hunters, wearied with the day's tramp, saw not the 

 light nor heard youp nor crow, but gently dozed off into 

 a dreamless, restful sleep. D. D. Banta. 



ADIRONDACK DEER HOUNDING. 



Editor Forest and Stream; 



The last two issues of your paper have been abusing 

 Mr. Bowman and myself in reference to the proposed re- 

 port of the Fishery Commission and our supposed views 

 concerning deer hounding. As the last issue was sent to 

 me marked, I suppose it calls for an answer. I should 

 have imagined that if you had put your thinking cap on 

 and sat down and thought right hard it might have 

 occurred to you that one who had devoted as many years 

 and as much time and work to the preservation and prop- 

 agation of the game, birds and lish of our State as I have 

 would most likely have opinions worthy of respect and 

 probably as well founded as those of any editor, however 

 brilliant. Under such a contingency you might have 

 sought more carefully for the facts. These were simply, 

 that when General Sherman read his very strong denun- 

 ciation of deer hounding, Mr. Bowman inquired whether 

 he thought it well to commit the Commission so decidedly 

 on a subject about which men as well informed as our- 

 selves and as honest in their desire to preserve the deer 

 differed totally. Then I suggested further, whether if 

 hounding were prohibited, visiting sportsmen would not 

 be wholly deprived of killing deer, and whether one 

 killed in that way was not more, profitable to the residents 

 of the Adirondacks than a dozen killed for food. Neither 

 of us committed himself in the least as to the 

 abstract proposition of the best protective statute 

 on the subject. General Sherman seemed impressed 

 with this latter view, but said that running deer 

 with dogs when they were heavy with young 

 was wrong. To this Mr. Bowman replied jocosely that 

 the medical men advised gentle exercise during such 

 periods, At this we all laughed, but your reporter seem* 



to have taken the joke for the argument. For this he is 

 probably not to blam e ; some people are by nature incapable 

 of seeing jokes and when men report matters with which 

 they are rmfamiliar they often make the oddest mistakes. 

 What I did object to very decidedly in the proposed re- 

 port was the use of extreme language in certain connec- 

 tions, for instance, that of classing the guides and poach- 

 ers together in these words, "the guides rather have fra- 

 ternized with the law breakers." This I think too strong 

 a statement. Some of them have, but I believe the great 

 body of the Adirondack guides to be honest, honorable, 

 law-abiding men. I have never found that abusing men 

 who honestly differed with me in opinion was the best 

 way of converting them from their errors. I make this 

 confession subject to correction, for I know it is so con- 

 trary to the opinion and practice of the Forest and 

 Stream. To this and some other sweeping charges I 

 desired a modification. But as to the hounding matter, 

 if Gen. Sherman, who is as well informed as to its effects 

 as any one, maintained his conclusions after thinking 

 the matter over, I should probably not have objected. In 

 my opinion the only sportsmanlike way of killing deer 

 is still-hunting, although the most romantic is floating 

 for them. But when it comes to turning them into 

 profit there is nothing to compare with the visiting sports- 

 man, who pays a hundred dollars for every shot and who 

 never gets a shot without a hound to help him. 



Robert Barnwell Roosevelt. 



THE TAKING OF CHATFIELD. 



THE capture of the game butcher Chatfield was noticed 

 in Forest and Stream some time since, but the 

 details of the occurrence have only just come to hand. 

 Chatfield came into the Park as guide for the Stewart- 

 Nevin party from the Sunlight Basin. He had previously 

 been a guide for the Rev. W. S. Rainsford. 



After Messrs. Stewart and Nevin had left, Chatfield 

 went to the Superintendent and asked his permission to 

 take his guns, traps, etc., through the Park to the Teton 

 country, where he proposed to trap some live animals for 

 the Zoological Gardens in Philadelphia. He was 

 questioned as to his knowledge of the southern boundary 

 of the Park, and, his answers not being satisfactory, was 

 shown a map of the reservation, and had pointed out to 

 him the features of the country that would enable him to 

 know the south line of the Park. The location of Heart 

 Lake and Mount Sheridan were particularly explained to 

 him. He finally said tbat he understood perfectly the 

 southern boundary of the Park, and would be careful not 

 to hunt or trap anywhere near the line. He was given 

 permission to take his outfit through, and started off, 

 accompanied by one Bill Whitwortb, a well-known Park 

 hunter, and a woman, whom he called his wife. 



A few days later, on the 2d of October, he was arrested 

 by a scouting party from Camp Sheridan, near the western 

 shore of Heart Lake, and between the lake and Mt. Sheri- 

 dan, for kfiling an elk. The party, which was led by Ed. 

 Wilson, scout, heard firing, and going in the direction of 

 the shots, found Chatfield with a fresh scalp of an elk 

 tied to his saddle, and a few yards further on found the 

 carcass of the elk still warm. Chatfield acknowledged 

 that he killed the elk, but pretended to believe that he 

 was outside of the Park. He was brought in to the office 

 of the Superintendent and having no defense, except that 

 he did not think he was in the Park, was expelled, his 

 hunting outfit and pony retained subject to the orders 

 of the Interior Department. 



In Forest and. Stream of Sept. 22, the Rev. Dr. Rains- 

 ford states that "Heart Lake is not anywhere near the 

 center of the Yellowstone Park, but eight miles from its 

 southern border." He does not say that the lake is not 

 in the Park, but the language of the latter might be con- 

 strued to mean that it is eight miles outside of the Park. 

 The Montana papers in pubUsbing an account of this affair 

 state that Chatfield was arrested eight miles outside of 

 the Park. They do not cite Dr. Rainsford as authority 

 for the statement, but an obvi >us connection appears be- 

 tween the two statements. Heart Lake is of course in 

 the Park. 



A Choice Gift. — The Batavia, N. Y., Spirit of the 

 Times records: "This morning, by the courte-y of a 

 member of the Batavia Club, we were accorded the 

 privilege of inspecting the most beautiful specimen of 

 the taxidermist's art ever exhibited in Batavia. It 

 consists of the head and antlers of a gigantic bull moose, 

 which when killed weighed l,6001bs., and is one of the 

 finest mounted game heads ever imported from Canada. 

 It was purchased in that country by Mr. Edward Todd, 

 of Owen Sound, Ontario, and his brother Henry of 

 Batavia, and is intended as a present to Mr. Richard 

 Willan of Darlington, England, brother-in-law of the 

 Messrs. H. and E. Todd, who in the summer of 1886 made 

 an extended visit to the States and Canada, and who 

 during his sojourn in Batavia made many warm and 

 genial friends, who gave him a fraternal and hearty 

 welcome to American hospitality. In remembrance of 

 his pleasant visit the brothers Todd will next Aveek 

 express to Mr. Willan in England this novel and remark- 

 able present. The antlers measure over 8ft. bin. from tip 

 to tip, the head being mounted on a large shield. On 

 the brow just below where the antlers protrude rests a 

 massive silver inscription plate also in the form of a 

 shield, 31x44 in., suspended from the antlers by a silver 

 chain, and bears the following inscription; 'Presented to 

 Richard Willan of Darlington, England, by Henry Todd 

 of Batavia, N. Y., and Edward Todd of Owen Sound, 

 Ontario, Xmas, 1887.' The head will be securely boxed, 

 and is to be forwarded to Mr. Willan from New York on 

 Wednesday next by the White Star steamer Adriatic." 



Choice of Guns.— Santa Rosa, Dec. 10. — In your issue 

 of Dec. 1 a subscriber suggests a No. 10 bore with two sets 

 of barrels, one set choke and the other cylinder, as an all 

 round gun. I, like him, have used most all kinds of guns, 

 and I have a 10-bore fitted as above which works quite 

 satisfactorily, but if I had to choose over again I would 

 have al2-gauge, as a 10 is quite heavy for tramping after 

 quail. For one who can afford two guns I would suggest 

 a No. 12, 28in., 81b.« left barrel modified choke, and the 

 other cylinder, and a No. 10, 80in. , 91b. , full choke, for 

 ducks. Ducks are coming in fine here now, and. quail, 

 though scarce in the valley, are plenty in the hills and 

 vineyards,— C, B, W, 



