132 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



I March 10, 1887. 



Vermont. — "West Charleston, March 2.— The reports are 

 that the deer butcher has been making fearful havoc in 

 Bome sections of the State. Fifteen were butchered in 

 one yard containing twenty-four. The crust-hunter has 

 an opportunity to slaughter owing to the great depth of 

 snow and the sharp crust, the snow being from three to 

 four feet in depth in the woods. — E. O. L. 



THE NEW YORK LAW. 



THE provisions of the proposed New York game bill were sum- 

 marized in our issue of Feb. 24. In a printed copy of the bill 

 sent to us by Mr. Roosevelt the May open deer season has been 

 omitted. The following comparisons will show the proposed al- 

 terations. The first lines in each instance give present dates, the 

 lines below proposed dates. The dates are inclusive: 



NEW YORK OPEN SEASONS. 



May be Killed. May he Sold. 



Deer Aug. M-Oct. 31* \ ; Jfcg& f J 



Aug. 15— Oct. 31 Aug. 15-Feb. 28 



Rabbits Nov. 1— Jan. 31 Aug. 1— Feb. 1 



Nov. 1— Dec. 31 Nov. 1— Feb. 15 



Squirrels Aug. 1— Jan. 31 Aug. 1— Jan. 31 



Nov. 1-Dec. 31 Nov. 1— Feb. 15 



Wildfowl Sept. 1— April 30 Sept. 1— April 30 



Sept. 1 -Feb. 28+ Sept. 1- Feb. 28 



Nov. 1— Dec. 31 Nov. 1-Jan. 31 



Nov. 1— Dec. 31 Nov. 1— Feb. 15 



Woodcock, i Aug. 1— Dec. 31 Aug, 1— Dec. 31 



July and Oct. 1-Dec. 31 ] g]£ f^Dec. 31 



Grouse Sept, 1— Dec. 31 Sept. 1— Jan. 1 



Nov. 1— Dec. 31$ Nov. 1-Feb. 15 



Bay Snipe Julv 11-Dec. 31 July 11 -Dec. 31 



July 1— Dec. 31** July 1— Dec. 31++ 



*By present and proposed law deer hounding allowed Sept. 1 — 

 Oct. 4. +By oroposed law brant are not protected. *R.uffe.d grouse 

 Season in Adirondack counties, Sept. 1— Dec, 31. **Wilson snipe 

 not protected. -rtWestern snipe may be sold at any time. Pro- 

 posed season for robin and meadow lark, Nov. 1 — Dec. 31. 



Quail. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The onlv serious difference of opinion among sportsmen consists 

 in determining whether it is wise aud right to shoot woodcock in 

 summer. Personally I have advocated the shooting, and now de- 

 sire to give as succinctly as possible my reasons. Let us look at 

 the arguments against it and I will give these as fairly as I can, 

 for no' one can be more in favor of protecting game than myself. 

 My efforts for twenty years past certainly show that, and when 

 others feel like questioning my purposes they had better see first 

 whether they have done as much. 



A few persons, very few, will contend that the birds are not 

 then fully grown. While they are not quite as large as the fall 

 birds, most sportsmen will admit that they are as large as summer 

 birds ever will be and are entirely mature. In the course of kill- 

 ing thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of them, I have never 

 met with more than a dozen cases of broods after July 1, and then 

 often the birds were of fair size for the table although not entirely 

 full grown. I found more cases of undersized quail in November 

 twenty to one. No legislation can cover every possible condition 

 of events or individual discrepancies, and it should not be at- 

 tempted. Others may think that by not shootiug these birds in 

 summer we shall save them for the fall and so increase their num- 

 ber. But this is a mistake for two reasons. Firstly the birds that 

 spend the summer with us in our swamps go south after moulting 

 in August, and never return to the places where they were hatched 

 The birds which we find in the autumn are rarely in the summer 

 swamps, being found more generally on hillsides and on quail 

 ground, and come from further north on their migration south- 

 ward. So all we do by saving the summer birds is to supply New 

 Jersey with what Canada dees not with equal self-denial furnish 

 to us. 



But the fact is, secondly, that, we do not save them at all, but 

 simply give them to the poachers. Woodcock arc the most liable 

 of all our game to be shot out of season. They lie in the deepest 

 undergrowth and in the wettest niudholes, where the poacher, out 

 of sight, can crawl around and do his work. Nor like the quail 

 are they found in bevies, but only a random shot tells of the. foe, 

 so thatit is impossible to follow Mm if any enthusiast would en- 

 gage in that unpleasant operation. When 1 was a boy, and in the 

 course of my day's sport was saluted with the unwelcome cry of 

 "get off my land," I simply used to wade directly from the sound 

 through the deepest part of the mud, and never yet was followed 

 for any distance. The farmer gave out at some point, it might be 

 bis ankles or it might be his hips, but there was always a limit. 

 The poacher only has to pursue the same method to get rid of in- 

 terference and the constable. Let any one who has doubt about 

 this universal destruction, investigate so far as to go into the 

 swamps where he knew there were broods hatched, and see if they 

 have not disappeared by the middle of July.' The law would sim- 

 ply give as it has given for years, all the summer shooting to those 

 who disobey, and deprive of it all those who obey the game law. 



Then it is said that summer shooting is too hot, Now is not this 

 after all the true and only reason why some people favor the en- 

 actment of a restriction? Too hot! Why it is the very time of 

 the year to shoot. Hot in the depth of the cool swamp with the 

 spring water up to your knees! Call that hot? It is no hotter 

 than it ought to be. But suppose it is hot, are we to make a law 

 for the protection of sportsmen from heat or for the protection of 

 birds from destruction ? The former should be called a "coddling 

 bill" for the assistance of weak-backed dudes. Suppose others 

 were to say that December is too cold, and would not allow any 

 one to kill quail during that month. If we are to consider heat 

 and cold it would be better to fix the law not by the seasons but 

 by the thermometer, and forbid all shooting when the temperature 

 ranges over 70° or under 30°. Shooting is defensible only on the 

 ground of its giving pleasure and health; mere killing is not an 

 ennobling operation. Wnere is there greater delight than in 

 summer woodcock shooting to those wlio have the stamina to 

 follow it, and ought not we to encourage that stamina? No 

 man will ever have the gout or rheumatism if he does sufficient 

 summer woodcock shooting to get himself into those magnificent 

 flowing perspirations it implies. It is worth all the. hot baths that 

 ever were invented, and is far more agreeable, indeed it is ten 

 Russian and Turkish baths rolled into one. 



One further objection is offered, which is that it will be made an 

 excuse for shooting partridges and quail. As to quail, they are 

 not found in the same localit ies ordinarily, but if people want ex- 

 cuses for wrong-doing they can produce them, and the man who 

 will kill birds out of season will do it as readily without the pre- 

 tense of woodcock shooting as with. Unless we can enact a law 

 that no mau shall be seen carrying a gun in summer, which is 

 manifestly absurd as well as unconstitutional, we cannot prevent 

 his shooting, and the only way to make him stop killing illegal 

 game is to convict him for it. And I will take this occasion to 

 suggest whether it is not about time that the rural districts set to 

 work protecting their own game by punishing shooting out of 

 season, instead of waiting for the New York society to stop the 

 sale of unseasonable game, and so incidentally stop the killing. 

 For our part here we think it is. I wish to say that while before 

 the passage of laws interfering with summer shooting, I yearly 

 killed hundreds of these birds, since their enactment 1 have hardly 

 killed any, it being both vain and unwise to go after them durinr 

 the month of August, when they are moulting, and during which 

 alone it has been permissible to pursue them. That is just the 

 month of the year, after the hatching season, when I should leave 

 them alone. Robert Bahnweix Roosevelt. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



If there is to be a change made in the present law for hunting 

 deer let the month of October be excluded from the open season 

 and the month of November added. No still-hunter wishes to 

 hunt deer in October upon a bed of dry leaves, when his only 

 chance of securing a shot is on the run, necessitating the wound- 

 ing and loss of two for every one secured. Of course the limited 

 number of three during the month can be secured, but at what a 

 sacrifice. If protection really is the object sought, why not take 

 a month when it can be accomplished without waste? It is a well 

 known fact, that for every three deer the hunter bags upon dry 

 leaves and sticks in October there is caused a loss of several more 

 that are shot and escape. Substitute the month of November, 

 when the hunter can track upon snow. Then if he only wounds 

 the animal it can be traced up and a vital shot given, so' that not 

 one in a dozen ever escape to feed the ravens and pine marten. 

 Thus the limited number is secured without waste. Secondly the 

 temperature is such that all can be kept, shipped home and used 

 to even the last pound. I also fail to see the consistency of making 



it lawful for the sportsman to kill three deer and unlawful for 

 him to ship but one of the three home. If he lives in the vicinity 

 and can furnish Ids own conveyance to take the game home he is 

 justified in doing so. But if he happens to live at a distance and 

 is obliged to ship by express or railroad, the law prohibits the act 

 of moving more than one of the number. Two-thirds of the non- 

 resident's booty must be left in the woods, given away or disposed 

 of. Just where this protective power to the game comes in is a 

 mystery to many, as much so as to cipher out how it would protect 

 the deer to legalize the slaughter through May by jacking. 

 Chautauqua County, N. Y. Cap Lock. 



The following petition, signed by about 125 residents of Chat- 

 ham, Philmont and Hillsdale was presented to the Board of Su- 

 pervisors at a recent meeting: "To the Board of Supervisors of 

 Columlna County: G-e ntuemen— We, the undersigned residents of 

 Columbia county, do hereby request that the game law be 

 amended, making it unlawful to export game from this county 

 for the market. Whereas, There is a class of so-called sportsmen 

 who make a living during the open season out of the proceeds of 

 the game that they send to market, and Whereas, That if the 

 present condition of affairs is permitted to continue it is a ques- 

 tion of a few years only when the partridge, the most valuable of 

 game birds in this section, will be completely extermina ted. This 

 is the only way that market shooting can be' stopped. It has been 

 tried in Dutchess and other counties, and to a great extent accom- 

 plished the desired result. As it lies solely in your power to make 

 the amendment, we appeal to you, gentlemen, in the interest of 

 all true sportsmen and for the protection of the game, hoping 

 you will give this petition all due consideration." 



An additional petition, signed by a number of Hudson people in 

 relation to the same subject, was also presented. After seme dis- 

 cussion the committee on laws was directed to prepare and 

 present to the board a resolution in relation to the matter. After 

 a short recess the committee reported a law making it unlawful 

 to trap or kill wild game in the county for exportation, under a 

 penalty of $5 for the first offense and #10 for each offense there- 

 after. 



The Utica Fish and Game Protective Association Directors at a 

 recent meeting denounced the proposed amendments to the Fish 

 and Game Laws. The following expresses the sense of the associ- 

 ation, and it was adopted: 



"Resolved, That the Utica Fish and Game Protective Associa- 

 tion is opposod to the sale of venison later than December 15, as is 

 now provided. 



"That we are firmly opposed to the killing of any game during 

 the months of July and August, either woodcock or squirrel or 

 any other. 



"That the season for killing all kinds of game (except deer) or 

 game birds should commence at the same time, September 1, of 

 each year and end not later than November 15 or December 1, 

 with not to exceed fifteen days beyond the killing season for the 

 selling. 



"That it is the experience of this association that all game laws 

 will be violated so long as game can be lawfully sold or held in 

 possession. 



"That it is unwise and impracticable to have the seasons for 

 either fish or game different in different sections of the State, 

 because our experience shows that if one section is open to lawful 

 sale, in the other section laws will be violated to supply sales in 

 the open section. 



"That tho open season for trout fishing should he shortened, by 

 not allowing the season to open before May 1 or April 15 in any 

 part of the State, and it should not close later than September 1. 



"That the killing of robins and meadow larks should be pro- 

 hibited at all times; and finally, 



"That the game lav. r s as they are, are practically ample in 

 everything except that the provision as to sale of trout under 

 Gin. long should be restored, the section as to game birds re- 

 enacted aud spring shooting prohibited, and that any attempt to 

 rewrite the game la ws will result in more harm than good to the 

 best interests of protection." 



Col. I. J. Gray, the President, and J. D. Collins, the Secretary, 

 were appointed a committee to oppose the Roosevelt bill in Albany, 



o 



A CARIBOU HUNT. 



'ER frozen ground and drifted snow 

 I travelled with old Indian Joe. 



The night was coming on apace, 

 The snow was driving in my face. 



Deep in Earth's spotless winding-sheet 

 We sank our weary snow-shoed feet, 



A great forest lay before us, 

 Sibilant wiuds shrieked in chorus. 



Tall and gaunt, the trees were bending 

 'Neath the blasts the Pole was sending; 



Stout trunks as with pain were groaning, 

 O'er our heads an owl was moaning. 



Our packs we throw from tired shoulders. 

 And slept by tall granite boulders, 



That warded off the tempest's ire, 

 While brightly burnt the hot camp-fire. 



We rose as the day was peeping, 

 O'er the hills red darts were leaping. 



We cleaned our guns and ready made 

 To travel through the leafless glade. 



We reached a stream where oft in June 

 Our reels had sung their merry tune. 



Then o'er its winding icy bed 



In all haste toward the lake we sped; 



And saw a sign to hunters sweet- 

 Cloven tracks of caribou feet. 



Now fast along the snow-bound -waste 

 We hurried ou in breathless haste; 



And soon we reached the lake from whence 

 The stream leaves on its journey hence. 



A sudden glance, said Joe "Here's luck! 

 Yonder stands the caribou buck." 



Four does with their monarch walk, 

 Now we're in for a lordly stalk! 



On each bank of the frozen sheet 

 We hurried on our snow-shoed feet. 



I took the left and Joe the right, 

 As on we ran with all our might. 



Oft through the trees I had a sight 



Of the many-pronged, autlered knight, 



I reached beyond him and his dock 

 And hid myself behind a rock. 



Along the narrow lake he came, 

 By his side stood a favored dame. 



His arched neck was proudly bent 

 As through the snow he slowly went. 



My heart heat loud as he came near; 

 I felt a strange voluptuous fear; 



I pulled the trigger; there was a flash— 

 A lofty leap, a headlong dash: 



On his knees fell the wounded hart; 

 Trusty had proved my leaden dart; 



Then blindly rushed away the does, 

 In mortal terror of their foes; 



The snow was deep and oft they sank 

 While making for the other bank; 



I saw them near the other shore; 

 Then loudly pealed a rifle's roar, 



The favored hind fell on the snow; 

 With smoking gun stood Indian Joe. 



And now I see upon my wall 



The pronged antlers, broad and tall. 



Oft again I see in my dreams 

 The leafless woods and frozen streams. 



"That reminds me." 

 205. 



A MONTREAL gentleman, lately deceased, used to tell 

 a good story of his first attempt at duck shooting 

 on the St. Clan Flats preserve. It was as follows: "I got 

 up before daybreak, dressed, and went down to the land- 

 ing, where I found my Indian waiting for me in the punt. 

 It was deuced cold and nasty. I got in and we started 

 for the pond I had drawn. As we were going through a 

 narrow channel we suddenly came upon an immense 

 flock of what I took to be ducks. I slipped in a couple of 

 cartridges, and was just pulling the trigger, when the 

 Indian yelled: "Don' shoot! don' shoot!" "Why the 

 devil won't I shoot?" "Mudducks" (niudhens), he an- 

 swered. Well, we went a little further till we came to a 

 pond black with ducks. I was just going to let them 

 have it, when the Indian again yelled, "Don' shoot! don' 

 shoot!" "Why in thunder won't I shoot?" I asked. 

 "Ducks go out to lake," (If the ducks are fired at on 

 being flusbed they will not come back, but if left alone 

 will fly in in ones or twos all day.) I was getting pretty 

 riled at being interrupted so often, and when in a short 

 time we came upon a nice little flock of mallards and 

 black ducks I was bound to let them have it, so gave 

 them right and left before the Indian could speak. "When 

 he did, all he could groan was, "Woodducks! wood- 

 ducks!" And sure enough I had smashed $20 worth of 

 decoys. F. M. 



Ottawa, Out. 



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



G. V. S. 



BAD WEATHER BUT BIG FISH. 



IN September I was at Mount Kineo, accompanied by 

 an old friend, an ardent a-nd successful fisherman, 

 By telegraphing ahead we secured two excellent guides 

 who advised camping out on Roach Pond, where, they 

 said, good fishing was to be had with but few competi- 

 tors. All arrangements being made, we started on Mon- 

 day morning in a small steamer, which we had engaged 

 to take us down to Lily Bay, from which point we had to 

 carry over to Roach Pond, teams having been engaged 

 beforehand for that ptu-pose. The road was good until 

 we reached the woods, when it became something awful : 

 wading stockings might have been of considerable ser- 

 vice. The glimpses of the woods on either side were 

 delightful, a carpet of brilliantly green moss prevailing in 

 most places, with here and there a tree leveled in some 

 heavy gale lying prostrate, its roots firmly matted with 

 clay and stones standing up like a wall. After a weary 

 drag through mud and mire, varied by an occasional 

 jolting ride on the teams, we emerged from the woods 

 and saw below us the "pond," a lake of some six miles 

 in length, with the neat buildings of Roach Farm at its 

 Outlet, backed by the two fine isolated Spencer Moun- 

 tains, each about 4,000 feet high. After dinner at the 

 farm the canoes were got into the water, and we paddled 

 up the lake toward our camping ground, stopping off the 

 mouth of a small brook to take a fish for supper. Chub 

 were rather abundant, but we got trout enough for one 

 meal. 



Our camp was pitched on the west side of the lake, in 

 a spot which would have been more sheltered if it had 

 not been visited some time before by a lady who wished 

 to have an uninterrupted view from her tent door, and 

 so caused some cutting down of trees, which gave the 

 easterly winds a clear sweep at us when they prevailed, 

 as they did during most of our time. Here we staid all 

 the week, having uncommonly bad weather. Only on 

 two days could we get on to the lake, the rest of the time 

 it blew a gale right on our shore, so that we could not 

 launch a canoe, nor could we have gone far had we gone 

 afloat, the sea running too high, and the birch, with all 

 its weatherly qualities, being a poor craft to work to 

 windward in when it blows hard. However, the first day 

 proving fine, we went up the south inlet and took some 

 eight or ten good fish of about 21bs. each. On another 

 day we took about the same number, and apparently 

 could have have made a big catch, as the fish rose freely, 

 but we could only fish for our own flying pan, there 

 being no way of disposing of what we could not consume. 

 The wind had risen when we returned to the lake, and we 

 had hard work to paddle back to the camp, where we found 

 a visiting card pinned to the canvas of our tent. 



a piece of birch bark with the names of Mr. and Mrs. , 



Cleveland, O., written on it. We returned the call and 

 found them ready to start homeward, bad as the weather 

 was. Our only other neighbor was camping on the other 

 side of the lake some two miles a way. Time hung heavy 

 on our hands; we shot at a mark, built a dock, read 

 novels, talked, grumbled of course, and somehow or other 

 got through the weary day. We had any amount of fine 

 scenery to look at, the Spencers being in full view on the 

 other side of the lake, and in the windy, cloudy weather, 

 changing their aspect constantly in the most picturesque 

 manner. Just opposite, forty miles away, Katahdin, the 

 highest mountain in Maine, afforded a beautiful study of 

 aerial color for an artist. As we were only fishermen, 

 the scenery did not make up for our enforced idleness. 

 The keen, cold air gave us capital appetites, and we 

 thoroughly enjoyed the food so skillfully prepared for us. 

 Every morning after our hasty toilet by the lakeside, 

 Avhen w*e were comfortably seated at our tent door, in 

 front of the cheerful fire, came the inquiry: "How would 

 flapjacks strike you fellows?" and the answer went back 

 that they would strike us in the right spot. The bill of 

 fare generally embraced trout from the larder at the lake 

 side, where our catch was laid out on one of the many 

 great trunks piled in confusion along the shore, the flot- 

 sam and the jetsam of the spring freshets of other days; 

 in fact, we had trout cooked in every way possible under 

 the circumstances, fried, broiled, baked and in chowder. 

 Occasionally the tinned corned beef gave us a savory 

 hash, tea accompanied every meal and was uniformly 

 excellent, and last, but not least, we had fresh bread now 

 and then; yes, fresh bread! made of self-raising flour and 

 skillfully prepared in a little Dutch oven, despite the gusts 



