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FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 10, 1887. 



"Hunting Without a Gun."— Raleigh., N. C, Jan. 80. 

 — Editor Forest and Stream: Your correspondents' notes 

 about hibernating squirrels recalls an experience I had 

 last January in Chatham county, this State. Two of us 

 on horseback, squirrel hunting, were accompanied by an 

 odd character named Cooper, who went along on foot and 

 was provided with a small club as, hanging through the 

 leathern girdle or belt, which served the purpose of sus- 

 penders as well as to carry ax and knife. We were in 

 the thick woods, the wind blowing a gale and it was snow- 

 ing. The dogs were heard to open, and off went Cooper 

 with a rush ahead of the dogs, peering up into the largest 

 trees. In a moment more he had divested himself of 

 shoes, coa,t and hat. was climbing an oak 2ft. through as 

 rapidly as a boy. He was soon out on one of the largest 

 limbs astraddle, peering down into a hole which led back 

 into the body of the tree. His ax was out and he was cut- 

 ting an opening a foot below in the tree. The old hat 

 was stuffed into the upper hole and in went his arm into 

 the lower one. With guns cocked we were anxiously 

 awaiting to seethe sqtiirrel bound up on some of the limbs 

 to see who should get the first shot. Imagine our sur- 

 prise and my disgust when I saw Cooper's arm drawn 

 from the hole", squirrel in hand and the creature's neck 

 broken by a quick bite, and the booty thrown to the 

 ground, dead as a stone. In went the arm and out again, 

 another squirrel in hand. The same process of killing 

 was gone through until he had thrown down five from 

 this one hollow. Not a squirrel did we see until Cooper 

 had killed them all. We followed them until late in the 

 evening. The same maneuver was gone through, and in 

 each case he killed all the game, and we would not have 

 had a shot but that we, finally growing disgusted at this 

 kind of a "squirrel hunt," protested. Out of nineteen 

 squirrels we gunners killed hve, and Cooper the remain- 

 der. At one large post oak he found in the hollow nine, 

 killing them all as i have described, much to our disgust. 

 — M. T. L. 



Wolves in Wisconsin.— Milwaukee, Wis., Feb. 4. — 

 Since our legislators repealed the law (some four years 

 ago) which provided State bounties for the destruction of 

 wolves, those voracious animals have increased at an 

 alarming rate, in the central and northern portions of 

 Wisconsin. In the county of Marathon they are espe- 

 cially numerous, and it is an every-day occurrence for 

 farmers and woodsmen to be hunted and treed by the 

 hungry brutes. Large numbers of sheep and hogs are 

 being destroyed— often in the presence of their owners— 

 who are powerless to act agains the formidable numbers 

 of the enemy. A friend of the writer, who is engaged in 

 lumbering in Marathon county, was lately pursued by a 

 pack of the "varmints." He said they numbered about 

 twenty, and were within ten rods of him, when he, luck- 

 ily, succeeded in climbing a half -grown pine tree, but he 

 was so terrified and exhausted from the proximity of the 

 wolves and the distance he had run to reach this particular 

 tree, the only one in the vicinity that could be climbed, 

 that he came very near falling down into the mouths of 

 his terrible pursuers. It was a close call. The people of 

 that section are urging upon the Legislature the necessity 

 of enacting rigorous laws for deliverance from these 

 dangerous pests.— Muskeego. 



Massachusetts Woodcock.— Taunton, Mass., Jan. 24. 

 — I have been a resident of this section for more than 

 thirty years, have had personal experience in woodcock 

 shooting, and am familiar with all the woodcock covers 

 within twenty miles. I have interviewed most of the 

 gunners in this section and find no very large scores of 

 woodcock for the last season. The numbers bagged by 

 two noted market-gunners were 8 and 13 respectively. I 

 have known one of these gunners to kill more than 200 

 woodcock in a single season on the same grounds. I 

 fear the scores that "Cohannet" gives in issue of Jan. 13, 

 were made a little early in the season, as he claims to have 

 shot five in a half day's hunt this year during Sep- 

 tember; from the 10th of July until about the 20th of 

 September is what is generally known to sportsmen as 

 the molting season of the woodcock, they are seldom 

 found during that time. The snow that came early in 

 December saved a great many quail, the deep snow made 

 difficult tramping for the gunners, and few were killed in 

 December. — Woodman. 



MAUD. 



A THRENODY. 



"Only vast silence, like a strong, black sea. 

 Rolls In 'twixt us and thee." 



TT OW sullen fall the flakes of snow! 



How sullen seems tbe earth around, 

 As, gazing the thick smother thro' 

 I see a lone sepulchral mound. 



'Tis there she lies, my beautiful! 



Safe sheltered from all storms and strife, 

 Who, year by year, so dutiful, 



Found favor in my heart and life. 



One year ago how braw she seemed, 

 In yonder stall, and gave low neigh 



To welcome me. I little dreamed 

 How dark would end that winter day! 



Thus all things pass. The flower, the fruit, 



The nearest kin, the dearest friend 

 An instant known when, at the root, 



Death gnaws and silence is the end! 



Yes! silence followed hard upon 



Thy taking off. Aghast I stood 

 To see thy seal of mystery won 



So suddenly, O, Maud, so good! 



Fair as the May, my mare, wert thou! 



A grateful memory thy bequest, 

 Of all thy -virtues I hold now, 



Among my memories the best. 



Thy travels past I journey on 



To goal like thine— the end of all! 

 Thou hast my love, memento won, 



I have thy bit, thy empty stall! O. W. R. 



The Mutual Life Insurance statement in another 

 column shows forcibly the sound condition of that great 

 institution, the assets footing up the total of $114,181,963.- 

 24. The company has nearly 130,000 policies and an- 

 nuities in force, amounting to $393,809,202.88. 



w and $h f er ^fatting. 



Address all communications to tlie Forest and Stream Pub. Co. 



THE SUNDAY FISHERMAN. 



THIS man above, on fishing bent, 

 One Sabbath morning left his tent. 

 The tent, A 



He took his can, and very quick 

 He dug his fish-worms with a pick. 



The Pick, t- The Worms, cn U) 



In case some fish of size he'd get 

 He took along his landing net. 

 The Landing Net, TJ 



As fishermen get hungry, too, 

 Of pretzels he procured a few. 



The Pretzels, g> up % 



Some lines he took along on spools 

 To teach them to the finny schools, 

 The Spools, H H H 



He had some entertaining hooka 

 Of highly tempered Limerick hooks. 

 The Hooks, J J J 



And thus prepared, he got his boat, 

 And out upon the stream did float. 

 The Boat, SSS 



Some bites he straight began to get, 

 It was the gallinippers hit. 



The Gallinippers, * ^ ^ * 



One of his lines spun off the reel; 

 He landed in the boat an eel. 

 The Eel, V) 



Then quickly it began to rain, 

 But his umbrella Was in vain. 

 The Umbrella, T 



Above his head the thunder crashed. 

 And all around the lightning flashed. 

 The Lightning, ^ 



The storm blew, and the boat upset, 

 That man went down into the wet. 

 The Upturned Boat, p=S 



And as he sank, the bubbles rose, 

 Smaller and smaller toward the close. 

 The Bubbles, O O O o o 

 -Tkl Bits. 



MY SECOND SALMON. 



I AM almost ashamed of myself when I think of it; to 

 think that I, a grown man, should have been guilty 

 of such undignified and altogether absurd antics; but, 

 after all, I was very young, not in years, alas, but in ex- 

 perience. It was my first season on a salmon river and 

 only my second fish. I had gone to a pool not frequently 

 fished, some three or four miles from the delightful camp 

 which my companion and I had established sixty miles 

 from tide water on the finest salmon river on this con- 

 tinent, all things considered. Two hours of rather awk- 

 ward casting had yielded/ not a rise to my fly, although 

 the salmon were at home, as was made apparent by fre- 

 quent rises and leaps in portions of the pool other than 

 those covered by my efforts. 



At last there came a great surge, just a flash of his sil- 

 ver sides, and I had him; he was a beauty, too. I knew 

 it "by the pricking of my thumbs," and he was fast, that 

 I knew by that indescribable something tha,t tells us at 

 once that we have him safely hooked, or that puts us in 

 such a nervous flutter that we feel half beaten from the 

 word go. I had this fellow, and I knew it, greeny 

 though I was. It was, as I have said, only my second 

 salmon, but in looking back at it over the 'many years 

 that have passed, I do not see how I could have played 

 that fish more judiciously if I had been a hundred years 

 old, and after a lively fight of half an hour he turned his 

 white sides up to theVvnlight and became obedient to the 

 slightest pressure from the rod, but there was life in him 

 yet, as appeared later. 



Slowly and most carefully I drew him near shore. The 

 water was shoal for a considerable distance from the 

 beach on which I stood — a bad landing place, but the 

 best there was. 



My gaffer, Tom, waded into the water twenty or more 

 feet to a point where it was some two feet deep. Slowly 

 the great fish, still struggling feebly, was drawn and 

 coaxed toAvard the gaff, at last he was within reach 

 and with a quick, yet deliberate, stroke (no better gaffer 

 than Tom lives) he was fastened. My strained muscles 

 relaxed and my lungs expanded with that long breath of 

 intense satisfaction and unalloyed happiness which is 

 never fully felt by any one except the angler who sees 

 his long fight crowned by such success as seemed to be 

 fully within my grasp. • 



Suddenly something inexplicable, something terrible, 

 happened — what, I did not quite know, but the fish was 

 gone, and Tom. was making frantic plunges in every di- 

 rection at once. Before I could well comprehend the sit- 

 uation the fish again appeared at the end of the gaff and 

 Tom, with agony depicted in every line of his features, 

 was making long strides, with a great splashing of water, 

 toward the shore. Again that fearful something hap- 

 pened and the fish disappeared, and again Tom was 

 striking here and there, apparently at random, this time 

 accompanying each stroke with "profane ejaculations, 

 sometimes in the best English at his command, but resort- 

 ing to the Micmac whenever the occasion demanded 

 especial energy of expression. 



Once more the fish became a captive, and this time was 

 borne some four or five feet up the shelving beach, when 

 he slipped off for the third time and Tom, abandoning the 

 gaff, threw himself bodily upon the fish, now flopping 

 about as lively, apparently, as ever. The other Tom 

 (there were two Toms in my canoe that season) ran in 

 and threw himself upon the struggling heap, and I, not 

 knowing exactly what to do but feeling that I ought to 

 take a hand in somehow, laid down my rod and threw 

 myself on top of the whole. 



Eeaching down I got what I supposed was a fair hold 

 and commanded the two Toms to get up, when, with a 



mighty effort, this thrice gaffed fish tore himself out of 

 my feeble grasp and regained the water. 



The leader was of course broken by this time, and, 

 partly on his side and partly on his back, he managed to 

 keep himself just beyond the reach of the three pairs of 

 outstretched hands until he gained a point where the 

 water was three or four feet deep, when, with one su- 

 preme effort, he got himself right side up and disap- 

 peared in the deeper water, leaving a great trail of blood 

 behind him. "Pliancy our phelinks" as we stood there 

 waist deep in the cold water staring at each other. 



The cause of this misfortune was not far to seek, it was, 

 as I have said, my first season, and my tackle was new 

 and untested (it is seasoned and tempered by the fire of 

 many battles now), and the gaff proved, upon examina- 

 tion, to have been made of soft, worthless metal, which 

 had given way under the strain and opened out so far as 

 to allow the fish to slip off. To say that I was greatly dis- 

 appointed would be putting it mildly. I was just sick. 

 There was no use in getting mad, but if the man who 

 sold me that gaff had been within reach at that moment 

 —well, never mind, something wordd have happened to 

 him. Sadly I laid my rod and the treacherous gaff in 

 the canoe and mournfully we commenced our return to 

 camp; dead silence reigned, the birds sang not for us and 

 even "the springing trout lay still;" there Avas no sun- 

 shine in the sky and the ashes of desolation settled 

 thickly on our dejected heads; Ave felt that life was a 

 mockery and that our doll was stuffed Avith sawdust. 



So we sadly crept toward home. Suddenly Tom of the 

 boAy addressed to Tom of the stern a few words in his 

 native Micmac, which he of the stern translated to me 

 thus: "We go doAvn little way, p'raps we fin' him dead 

 somewhere, mus' be dead, gaff him three times, mus' kill 

 him less he ghost— think so." 



To be sure, why not? I ought to have thought of that 

 myself, but I Avas very young then. So we drifted back 

 to the point where we last saw the salmon, and letting 

 the current take the canoe where it would, assuming that 

 it would take us in much the same direction that it had 

 taken the fish if he were indeed dead, we stood up to 

 watch the bottom. 



Now that we had a neAv hope born Avithin us the sun 

 shone again, the birds sang, and all was joyous. The 

 pool Avas a long one, two hundred yards at least; but the 

 salmon usually lay in the upper end at the foot of a 

 heavy rapid, and it was at this point that our misfortune 

 had occurred. Below this point the water became quite 

 still and gradually deeper, until at the lower one-third of 

 the pool it Avas twelve or fourteen feet deep, but very 

 clear. We had passed over nearly the entire length of 

 the pool and despair was fast overtaking us again, when 

 I saw our friend feebly struggling near the bottom, but 

 far beyond the reach of the gaff, Avhich we had put into 

 shape as well as Ave could with our hands. Only a few 

 feet more and the fish would be in the jaws of the long 

 rapid below and his recovery a matter of grave doubt. 

 What coidd be done had to be done quickly. 



Fortunately I had in my pocket a stout cord, a. habit of 

 carrying which I had acquired by association with the 

 companion before mentioned, and with this the gaff -han- 

 dle Avas bound to the end of one of the setting poles, and 

 while Tom of the stern held the canoe in the proper posi- 

 tion, Tom of the bow for the fourth time inserted the 

 gaff into the fish, and gently, oh how gently, lifted him 

 over the gunwale, and at last he was ours. Ah! then how 

 I laughed, how I shouted, how I sang. I patted and 

 I petted that fish. I am not sure that I did not kiss him; 

 I talked to him like a dear friend and behaved like a crazy 

 man generally. And this brings me back to the point 

 where I commenced, I am almost ashamed of myself 

 when I think of it; but I Avas very young— it Avas only 

 my second salmon and he weighed twenty-seven pounds. 



What would you have done if you had been in my 

 place? S, A. 



RUTT.ANn, Vt. 



EARLY MAINE FISHING. 



THOUGH it is hardly past midwinter, yet there are 

 those Avho are already thinking seriously of the 

 early fishing trip to the Maine waters. They talk about 

 it, and it is pretty sure that they dream about. Indeed 

 I ha<T the pleasure of inspecting the outfit of a new camp 

 that is about being built, only yesterday. The builders 

 are Boston gentlemen, very well known in the printing 

 trade. Indeed if it was to be styled a printers' camp, it 

 wovdd not come far out of the way. The camp is to be 

 built in the NarroAvs, Richardson Lake, Maine, or better 

 understood between Lakes Welokennebacook and Mole- 

 ckunkamunk. It will probably be located on the high 

 land nearly opposite Metalic Point, sol long well known to 

 the former visitors to that part of the Androscoggin 

 Lakes. But the extra flowage, put on to that lake six or 

 seven years ago, covered Metalic Point and made the 

 NarroAvs one of the most celebrated fishing grounds for 

 spring trolling of any in the lake regions. The primary 

 projector of this new camp in the NarroAvs is Mr. C. P. 

 Stevens, well-knoAvn to the whole printers' trade of New 

 England, as one of the firm of Wild & Stevens, of prin- 

 ters' roller fame. Joined with him are his nephew, F. 

 H. Stephens, bookkeeper at the firm's place of business, 

 No. 12 Hawley place; Mr. E. J. Shattuck, in the printers' 

 ink firm of Geo. H. Morrill & Co., 34 Hawley street; and 

 James N. Smart, of the well-known printing firm of T. 

 J. N. Smith & Co. These gentlemen have decided to 

 build a camp 24x24, to be completed in season for the 

 spring fisliing. This will have to be rather early, for 

 Mr. Stevens is noted for being one of the first at the 

 lakes. It Avas this gentleman of whom the Forest and 

 Stream had an account last year as having gone up to 

 the Narrows before the ice went out, in order to be on 

 the ground for the early fishing. That time he had the 

 pleasure of rowing seven miles to the mouth of Mill 

 Brook for minnows for bait, since there are no minnows 

 to be found in their usual haunts thus early in the season. 

 Besides, he had the pleasure of tenting out in a fresh 

 snow fall of four inches. This spring Mr. Stevens has a 

 large number of minnows in a spring somewhere on his 

 route ready as soon as the ice goes out of the Narrows. 

 By this early fishing Mr. Stevens lias made his score to in- 

 clude the greatest weight for the number of any score 

 included in the fisherman's yarns. The five, and even 

 up to the seven-pounders, are very plenty hi his record. 



Mr. Stevens starts in a day or two locate his camp, al- 

 though the lumber has been hauled up to the Narrows 

 for some time, but the party desire to have the best loca- 

 tion on high ground to be found in that vicinity, and Mr 



