160 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 17, 1887. 



'fa Mpwtzntxn jurist 



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



TRAILING A WAR PARTY. 



I HAVE just read, with deep interest and great pleas- 

 ure, Pioneer's bear story in your issue of March 3, 

 and it brings to my mind a long train of pleasant mem- 

 ories. It so happened that I lived and grew up in the 

 neck of woods he speaks of, and I have tramped, hunted 

 and fished many a day along the Big Turkey and several 

 of its tributaries. I have explored many ' of the rocky 

 fastnesses and caves in Clayton county, no doubt includ- 

 ing the one in Which he snared the bear. This was 

 "befo' the wah, sab," though not so far back as the time 

 of which Pioneer writes. The bear had made his last 

 track in that country previous to the date of my going 

 there, and deer wore then too scarce to make the hunting 

 of them interesting. About the only game we had was 

 wolvas, foxes, woodchucks, rabbits, squirrels, partridges 

 and quail. Although these were all dear to me then (no 

 pun intended), and though I enjoyed hunting them with 

 all the enthusiasm of the average boy sportsman, I have 

 long since tired of such small fry and have frequently, 

 in later years, wandered into the Far West in search of 

 larger game, and this brings me to the subject of which 

 I set out to .wr ite. 



On one of these annual pilgrimages I fell in with a 

 man whose boyhood days were also spent in this region 

 mentioned by Pioneer, and whose name will, doubtless, 

 be familiar to him and to many other readers of Forest 

 and Stream. His father's homestead is situated, as 

 nearly as I can remember, about two miles northeast of 

 Colesburg, and I presume very near where Pioneer and 

 his friends had their fun with the bear. 



I refer to Mr. Sam Fishel, who left the old homestead 

 and emigrated to Montana in, I think, 1S58, when there 

 were scarcely more than a corporal's guard of white men 

 in that territory and when their ban was extremely liable 

 to be removed at any time without then consent. I met 

 Fishel in the fall of '83 at Fort Maginnis, where he was 

 then employed by the military authorities as a scout. I 

 knew nothing of his identity when I went there, nor un- 

 til we had ridden together nearly a day, he having been 

 detailed by the officer in command of the post to guide 

 me on a hunting expedition into the Snowy Mountains. 



You may imagine our surprise when, in the course of a 

 rambling conversation as we rode across the plains, we 

 discovered that as boys we had lived within four or five 

 miles of each other. Questions and answers flew thick 

 and fast then, and the important points in our respective 

 histories since leaving the old homesteads were rapidly- 

 brought out. 



Sam proved one of the most genial companions and 

 best hunters I have ever known. We were together in 

 the saddle, by the camp-fire, or hunting on foot for three 

 weeks, and many a thrilling narrative was drawn from 

 this veteran frontiersman. 



He had operated at various periods as hunter, trapper, 

 miner, guide and scout, and though a modest, unpreten- 

 tious man, little disposed to speak of his own achieve- 

 ments, was always glad to narrate any incident in his 

 life if convinced that it would interest a'listener. 



I will repeat here only one of these. He and a friend 

 were trapping and hunting at the head of the Judith 

 Basin in midwinter. A band of Piegan Indians made a 

 sneak on their camp one night and stole all their stock — 

 two saddle and two pack horses. The feelings of the 

 hunters, on discovering in the morning that they were 

 afoot— in the heart of an uninhabited wilderness — can only 

 be imagined by men who have been there. They ex- 

 amined the trail and found that there were eleven of the 

 Indians, all mounted, and time they had gone north. 



Fishel and his partner, after discussing the matter 

 seriously for an hour, determined to follow the thieves 

 in the best manner possible, and try to recover their 

 stock. They, therefore, set out for another trapper's 

 camp some ten miles away, arriving there at noon. 

 There were at this camp three men, and, fortunately, 

 they bad five horses, enough to mount the entire party. 

 In accordance with the western idea of courtesy, these 

 three men at once placsd themselves and their horses at 

 the service of their unfortunate neighbors, and in an hour 

 all had dined, and, with a supply of food, Avell armed 

 aud equipped, were in then' saddles and elf toward the 

 trail of the thieves. 



On reaching it they took an easy gait and followed it 

 three days and three nights, stopping only long enough 

 each night and morning to allow their animals the neces- 

 sary time for food and rest; the deep snow and bright 

 moonlight enabling them to follow the trad by night as 

 readily as by day. 



At daybreak on the morning of the fourth day the pur- 

 suers sighted the marauders encamped on the bank of the 

 Missouri River, near the ranch of a squaw man and 

 trader. The remnant of a camp-fire smoldered and flick- 

 ered in the gray of dawn, around which lay the redskins, 

 wrapped in their blankets and sleeping in fancied secur- 

 ity, not deeming it possible that their victims could fol- 

 low them so far on foot, nor probablo that, in the then 

 unsettled condition of the country, they could get other 

 mounts on which to make a pursuit. One Indian had, 

 however, been left on guard, more, perhaps, to prevent 

 the stock from straying than to watch for possible ene- 

 mies; but he was crouching over the scant fire, and as 

 Fishel and his friends watched him from the top of a hill 

 a quarter of a mile away, they saw him rise up, look over 

 the herd, and as they were all feeding intently on the 

 willows, ho wrapped himself in his blanket and lay down 

 ani3ng his friends for a morning snooze. 



Our friends now hastily decided on a novel ruse. One 

 of them dismounted and crept cautiously toward the 

 Indian camp while the others went directly to the ranch, 

 and cached then- horses and themselves in the corral. 

 The man on foot now cautiously approached the tired 

 and half-starved herd, rounded them up and drove them 

 quietly to the ranch where he and his friends soon placed 

 them safely in the corral. The party now went to the 

 ranch house, woke the proprietor and explained the situ- 

 ation to him. He remonstrated stoutly against any vio- 

 lence being done to the red men, with whom he wished 

 to be friendly, but his visitors were largely in the ma- 

 jority, so they ordered him peremptorily to keep still and 

 await developments at the Indian cainp, which was in 



plain view of the ranch house. Finally, when the sun 

 was half an hour high, one of the Indians woke up and 

 looked around. Fading to see the horses he gave the 

 alarm , and the camp was instantly a scene of commo- 

 tion. On examining the signs about the camp and find- 

 ing that their stock had been driven toward the ranch by 

 a single man on foot, they seemed to conclude at once 

 that the ranchman had come down and driven them in, 

 and shouldering their guns they boldly started up to the 

 house presumably to demand an explanation. Our friends 

 inside awaited the coming of their foe3 with breathless 

 anxiety, with a cool determination to quit even with 

 them. The muzzles of their rifles were at the loopholes 

 of the cabin, the hammers were drawn back and a finger 

 rested on each trigger. The reds were allowed to come 

 within 30yds. of the house before a weapon spoke. Then, 

 at a preconcerted signal, each man covering his allotted 

 foe, five little clouds of smoke shot out from the side ol 

 the shack, five short, sharp reports rang out on the frosty 

 morning air, and four of the red thieves fell dead in then 

 tracks, the fifth badly wounded. 



The remaining six, uttering shrieks of terror, turned 

 and fled in the Avildest dismay, but a shower of lead fol- 

 lowed them with such telling effect that three more 

 were brought down before they reached cover. The re- 

 maining three made long and rapid strides toward then 

 home beyond the British border, without making any fur- 

 ther effort to recover even cne each of their own cayuset 

 to carry them, and Fishel and his friends, after resting a 

 day or two at the ranch, returned with their own horset 

 and those captured in the action to their camps. 



Fishel said, with a modest glance at the camp-fire, a? 

 he finished, "that was a good many years ago, but 1 

 have never had a horse stolen by Indians since. When 

 we got back to the stage station we found out that tin 

 thermometer had been from thirty to forty degrees be- 

 low zero all the time we were gone. * We suffered a gooc 

 deal with the cold, but if we had known it was that cold 

 wo would have frozen to death sure." U. Bet. 



SPORT IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 



Editor Forest and. Stream: 



Having had several years experience in Canada, prin- 

 cipally in this Province, and spent all my spare time anc 

 much more than all my spare cash on sport with rifle, 

 gun and rod, I think if 1 jot down a few rough notes on 

 when, where and how to obtain sport, I may perhaps bt 

 of service to some of your readers who may be thinking 

 of trying New Brunswick, and also repay the debt I owe 

 to some of the correspondents of Forest and Stream foi 

 valuable information freely given as to other sporting 

 regions. 



Our big game consists of the usual Eastern list— moose, 

 caribou, deer and bear, a few wolves and perhaps tht 

 panther (Felis concolo?-); at least an animal much resem- 

 bling it has been described to me by hunters and lumber- 

 men from widely different localties. In the way of game 

 birds and wildfowl we have geese, brant, ducks, ruffed 

 grouse, Canada grouse, snipe and woodcock, and trappers 

 obtain beaver, otter, sable, black cat, foxes, lucifer, mink 

 and musquash. Now, although tins list may seem a long 

 one, let no man be led astray by it. Some of these ani- 

 mals and birds exist here in enormous quantities, bul 

 unless the sportsman choose his ground carefully and bt 

 there exactly at the right time, he will reap only disap- 

 pointment as his roward. As a rule all our game it 

 migratory; even moose and caribou change their abode 

 so much with the varying seasons, that as far as the 

 sportsman is concerned they might almost be considered 

 as migratory. Moose, for instance, in summer are around 

 the streams, lakes, and low spruce lands generally, in the 

 summer they "travel up" to the hardwood ridges, often 

 many miles from then- summer quarters, and usually 

 winter in some sheltered valley where moose wood and 

 young maples abound. I proved this change of ground 

 practically some years since in Ontario. 



Two other sportsmen and myself were, one fine Sep- 

 tember, on the western shores of Lake Temiscamingue 

 after much labor in portaging our effects up the numer- 

 ous falls of the Ottawa River. I believe there is a railway 

 to the lake now. We expected to find moose very plenti- 

 ful, as an officer in the Hudson's Bay Company's employ 

 had been there in the summer and seen both game and 

 tracks in abundance. The tracks we certainly found, 

 indeeed in certain favored localties the ground was 

 trodden up like a barnyard, but wo had eventually to 

 shift our ground some twenty-five miles to the eastward 

 before we found moose. Caribou also change their pas- 

 tures a good deal. In September they are scattered all 

 over the woods, the bulls running about continually look- 

 in r for the cows; in October they bunch up and take to 

 the barrens; but with the first frosts they leave the 

 barrens, as the slightly frozen crust will not bear them, 

 and take to the woods again, and do not venture into the 

 open ground until they have got over all fear of breaking 

 through. After this they stick to the barrens until the 

 snow becomes too deep for themtogetatthemoss(Lic/ien 

 rangiferiaa), when they resort to the woods of thick 

 spruce and also to lumber works, the "w^ool" hanging 

 from the tops left by the lumbermen being the attraction. 

 Deer (C. virginianus), after having been nearly extermi- 

 nated, tho settlers say by wolves, but probably quite as 

 much by crusting, are becoming numerous again. They 

 have been seen on the eastern side of the St. John in 

 several localties, and are even reported from Brunt Hill 

 Brook, on Miramichi, where tracks have been noticed this 

 fall. They will probably become sufficiently numerous 

 for good shooting in a few years. I believe we owe this 

 animal's return to the game laws just over the border in 

 Maine being prope ly enforced, some of the Maine sur- 

 plus deer having strayed over. More power to the game 

 wardens' elbows. Bears are very plentiful, and are often 

 reported seen quite near towns and villages, and scaring 

 somebody badly, as often as not the "schoolmarm." Bear 

 hunting is most unsatisfactory work, and tho beasts re- 

 ported are generally seen along the streams or roads. In 

 the woods then hearing is so acute that a man generally 

 has no ohance of stalking them. They are sometimes 

 very casdy killed when shot. I know of several killed 

 with i ioz. No. 5 shot, and one with ioz. No. 8, which a 

 naturalist had loaded for collecting purposes; the bear in 

 this case was not more than five vards from the muz- 

 zle of the gun. Behind the shoulder low down is the 

 "skudflekk" of a bear. 



I will now try and indicate some localities where reason- 

 able sport may be expected, the time to go and the outfit 



required; the last is a very delicate matter, as every good 

 ■mortsman has some pet way of his own, so when any one 

 does not agree with me let hiin agree to differr Several 

 (if not all) roads lead to Rome, and one way may be as 

 good as the other. 



The best moose country now remaining in New Bruns- 

 wick is along the borders of Northumberland and Via 

 toria counties about Little' s, West Lake and the Cow 

 Mountains. There are three ways of getting to this 

 country, which is very remote. The first route is by the 

 North Western Railway to Cross Creek, thence by lumber 

 road to head of Clearwater, thence following the county 

 line some 10 miles or so to the ground. Take plenty of 

 men, as the "sacking" is heavy; and cut down weight 

 far as possible. Route No. 2 is from Newcastle up stream 

 about t>0 miles, following a lumber road on which a hcrse 

 and drag can be taken ; by thia route you strike the ground 

 r'rom the other side. Much of the region between South- 

 west Gap and the heads of Nepisiquil and Tobiquc rivers 

 is yet unknown to the map makers, and game is very 

 pleutiful. The tliird and last route is up the Tobique , 

 River by canoe to Long Lake, from the eastern extremity 

 of which the desired ground lies to the eastward. As 

 Indians and canoes can be got at the mouth of the Tobique 

 this sounds the easiest way, but generally in August and 

 September, the* moose calling season, the water is very 

 low, and canoeing up stream means hard, slow work.* 

 This country, I repeat, is very inaccessible, but when one 

 is there he will find game plentiful. The sportsman, 

 however, may havo considerable trouble in obtaining a 

 good moose caller; they are scarce. I know of only one or 

 two, and they are not to be found among the degenerate 

 Jliliceet Indians of Fredcricton, where guides are gener- 

 ally engaged. To insure sport the party should be on tho 

 ground by the first full moon in September. Remember 

 ne ver to shoot more meat than can be saved and eaten, 

 as the country is too remote to get anything out at that 

 period of the year before it spoils, Tnere are duck and 

 oaribou to be had, too, but they can be obtained better in 

 more accessible localities. 



Caribou are plentiful in most parts of the Province. 

 One was killed last year by the locomotive of the night 

 3x press near McAdam Junction; and I have seen their 

 tracks within three miles of Fredericton. I believe there 

 is not a single county in the Province that does not hold 

 these deer. But (alas for these "buts") in the fall when 

 their heads are at their best and worthy trophies of a 

 sportsman's skill, hunting them in thick woods is like 

 looking for a needle in a bundle of hay. The places to 

 obtain sport are large barrens, and the time about Christ- 

 inas, although many of the best heads are spoiled by that 

 time; but earlier sport is very uncertain, indeed it is so 

 at the best of times with caribou. After hard frosts for 

 the first fortnight in December and a nice fresh fall of 

 Jin. or so of snow, a visit to any of the following locali- 

 ties with good Indians, will possibly result in the capture 

 of some of these fine beasts : The barrens between Tra- 

 cadie and Coraquette rivers, in Gloucester county, best 

 got at from Bathurst; Myshrall Lake, a few miles from 

 Boiestown; Cain's River barrens and Gaspereau River, 

 Grand Lake. The last two are reached from Fredericton, 

 and although more hunted over than the others, are 

 occasionally very good. A great many caribou are annu- 

 ally killed in the lumber woods, but it is not the same 

 sport as stalking them on the barrens, and those killed in 

 the lumber woods are nearly always shot after the legal 

 season has expired. 



Leaving big game and turning our attention to wing 

 3hooting, geese naturally claim first place. These birds, 

 in their habits, differ much from duck. The latter drop 

 into any lake or pond that offers them food and shelter. 

 Not so, however, the geese. They seem to have certain 

 haunts, and will on no account try other, and, seemingly, 

 equally inviting marshes. I have remarked this same 

 characteristic of the European geese in Norway. When 

 going south, after leaving the northern parts of that 

 country, they halt only once or twice at certain well- 

 known lakes in the whole eleven hundred miles of that 

 kingdom. Canada geese assemble hi large numbers in 

 October along the northern coast ot New Brunswick, 

 from Canipciton to Bay Verte. Particularly good places 

 for sport are Eel River, Bathurst Harbor, Point Miscou, 

 Tracadie Gully, Richibuet's Beach, Point Escuminac. As 

 soon as heavy storms come on, toward the end of the 

 month the birds begin to leave for the south. The prin- 

 cipal stopping places are Myshrall Lake, the Bull Pasture. 

 Plains, Cranberry Bog an l French Lake, alia few miles 

 from Fredericton. It is said that they frequent some 

 of the lakes on tributaries of Salmon River, Grand Lake. 

 There are probably a few other localities, but it is certain 

 that many lakes lying in the track of the migrating birds 

 arc never visited by them, though why, I for one cannot 

 tell. French Lake, which is a great report with them, 

 is to all appearance a very inviting place for wildfowl; it 

 is surrounded by farms, and the buds are shot at night 

 and day; nevertheless, they always rest there. This fall 

 they were there in thousands. 



Black ducks breed on most of the inland lakes and 

 rivers, and the shooting at French Lake and Upper and 

 Lower Timber lakes is occasionally very good in Septem- 

 ber. A few summer duck and teal are al?o shot, but 

 other kinds are scarce, except bluebills, later in the season, 

 say the end of October. The ducks are shot in the even- 

 ing as they drop into these rushy lakes to feed, and the 

 shooting for half an hour or so before dusk is great fun. 

 When the buds are frozen out at these lakes they are 

 usually to be found for a few days longer at some well 

 known resorts along the bay shore, where good shooting 

 is obtained until then final departure for the United 

 States. A perfectly broken retrieving spaniel is of great 

 assistance for this shooting, an 1 will almost double the bag. 



Woodcock breed in suitable localities all over the 

 southern portion of the Province and on the St. John and 

 its tributaries, but do not extend to the Miramichi waters, 

 although one was seen at Little Southwest Lake, and a 

 friend informed me he saw a pair in June at Shippegan, 

 in Gloucester county. I fancy, however, that these are 

 exceptional cases. The rule seems to be that the buds 

 follow up the St. John River and its tributaries, to their 

 very heads in many instances, but go no further north. I 

 believe that there is occasionally very good shooting in 

 certain covers along the const. Judge W., one of the 

 best woodcock shots in the Province, told me that a few 

 years back he got 17 birds to his own gun in one day, 



♦We are advised t>y Mr. Edward Jack that there is a good port- 

 age of 19 miles from Gulquac to Tobique Lake, with a lumber camp 

 at end of portage.— Ed. 



