276 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



f April 21, 1887. 



ON THE EAST FORK. 



OUR. party consisted of Ely Murray, of this place, his 

 brother, Mr. Charles Murray, and Dr. Rippaxd, both 

 of Wilkesbarre, Pa., and myself.' Ely and his brother 

 were old hunters and had slain many a deer, while the 

 Doctor and myself were the ''greenhorns" of the party. 

 Our guns consisted of repeating rifles for the Murray 

 brothers, and shotguns with buckshot for Rippard and 

 myself. 



We started from Athens, Pa., Nov. 3, and drove the 

 entire distance, passing through Mansfield, Wellsboro 

 and Gaines, and on the 6th readied the Simieruehoning 

 Valley, in Potter county, Pa. We found Fred Martin, 

 who was to be our guide and cook, ready for us. He had 

 a good cabin near the creek, well furnished with every- 

 thing necessary for camp life. As soon as we had un- 

 packed in the cabin we started out for Hammersley's Run 

 for our first hunt. Martin knew the woods thoroughly, 

 and placed us on runways. A doe ran near Ely; he fired 

 twice at it and thought he hit it, but as no blood could be 

 found on the leaves it was given up. A few days later, 

 however, another hunter found it dead a short distance 

 from where it had been fired at. 



Nearly eveiy day some one would start a deer, but the 

 leaves being dry made still-hunting impossible, and in 

 driving the game would inevitably take a runway whore 

 no one was placed, so night after night we returned 

 empty-handed. But on waking one morning we found 

 two inches of snow on the ground, and we began prepa- 

 rations for the day's hunt. 



It was agreed that Fred should place Charles, the 

 doctor and himself on runways, while Ely and I should 

 make the drive. We let them get fifteen minutes start 

 and then began our work: when part way through I 

 started three deer which ran up over the hill" and into the 

 basin beyond. Ely was following a buck track to the 

 right and so lost a shot as he crossed where he would 

 have been. A short distance beyond he jumped a fine 

 buck which ran through to Fred, who fired, lulling it 

 instantly. We soon had it dressed and hung up, and then 

 started to drive the basin where the three deer had gone. 

 Charles was placed on the ridge, Doc on the next lower 

 bench, and I beyond him, while Fred went to the lower 

 end. Ely did the driving and was gone but a short time 

 when I heard two reports, and in a few seconds a double 

 shot again. I expected every moment to see a deer come 

 in sight, but none came, and after waiting a few minutes 

 I went to where I heard the firing and there found the 

 doctor somewhat excited. As I came up he pointed down 

 at some drops of blood on the snow and said, "Look how 

 I hit 'em." He said he was looking down the hill and 

 saw two does coming up; they were looking around and 

 as they got within 150yds. began to sniff the air. He 

 supposed they had winded him, so he pulled up and fired, 

 dropping one, while the other ran a few steps and stopped. 

 He fired at this one and it ran off and then the doe on 

 the ground got up just as_ he reloaded and started after 

 the other, although he "fired again. The doctor felt 

 somewhat downhearted about his loss, but attributed it 

 to the shotgun, for if he had had a rifle he could have 

 killed both. We followed the deer some distance, but as 

 they stopped bleeding and were making better time than 

 we were, it was decided to return to camp, and we ar- 

 rived at the edge of the woods in time to see a young fel- 

 low kill a nice buck which had run into the creek. 



The next day we awoke to find the snow melting and it 

 was decided to start as early as possible. Fred, Charles 

 and Doc were to occupy runways, and Ely and I would 

 make the first drive. The others had just gone and we 

 were waiting to give them a a few minutes start, when 

 we heard an awful yell, and then a great splash. I ran 

 to the cabin door in time to see the jolly doctor splashing 

 in the icy cold creek. As he was crossing the log which 

 served as a foot bridge, he slipped and grabbed the rail- 

 ing, which gave away, precipitating hitn into the water 

 seven feet below, and nearly six feet deep. We fished up 

 his gun, and after helping him change his wet garments 

 for dry ones, went on to meet the others. We started no 

 deer on this drive, but saw plenty of tracks, as well as the 

 trail of a big bear. On the next drive Charles had a shot 

 at a buck, but he did not kill it as the brush was quite 

 thick and he had only a glimpse of the game as it bounded 

 past. During this drive Ely and myself became separated 

 from the rest, and finding the fresh tracks of three deer, 

 concluded to follow them up. We tracked them for some 

 distance and found where they had been feeding and had 

 gone over the dividing ridge. 



After hunting rather carefully for a while, we heard 

 several shots some distance off in the direction that we 

 were going. Hurrying to the edge of the hill we stood 

 looking around, when Ely said: "There's a deer," and 

 looking in the direction I saw a doe making its way along 

 unconscious of any danger. As I stood watching it an- 

 other came in sight, and following them appeared a large 

 buck with immense antlers. They were taking it leisure- 

 ly, trotting along, nibbling moss off the logs, and before 

 long had come nearly in front of us. What a sight it 

 was! Within loOyds. were three unalarrned deer. Had 

 my companion not been there to keep me cool I might 

 have had a touch of buck fever, but just then he pulled 

 up, and taking deliberate aim at the buck as he was 

 walking, pulled the trigger. For some unknown reason 

 the cartridge did not explode. At the snap all three 

 started on a jump and I sent a load of buckshot at the 

 buck, which caused him to stumble and fall, but regain- 

 ing himself he started on, just as I gave Mm the other 

 load. Ely had thrown more shells into his repeater, and 

 had fired as they ran. When on the opposite side of the 

 draft they all stopped; one poked its head from behind a 

 tree, and as Ely fired again I saw the deer fall and the 

 . other two start on a jump. At the next shot I saw a leg 

 ' hanging loose on the doe. but the two disappeared over 

 the ridge. On dressing the deer we found that the bullet 

 had gone in through one eye and out at the other. 



Taking the tracks again we soon found where the doe 

 had lain down and bled freely from a wound in the side, 

 as well as from the broken ieg. while the buck I had 

 wounded was spurting blood at every jump and stopping 

 every few yards. As it was growing late we thought 

 best to find the doe first and the buck afterward. We 

 had not far to go before we started the doe again, and as 

 it passed me I fired a load of buckshot which dropped it. 

 After dressing and hanging it up, we looked at our 

 watches and found we would have to strike out for camp 

 if we got in before dark. So marking the trees, we set 

 out and struck Birch Run, which we followed nearly four 



miles to get out, and that was two miles below the cabin. 

 It was a jolly party that night that sat down to a supper 

 in Fred Martin's best style — broiled grouse, roast venison, 

 baked potatoes, home-made bread, buckwheat cakes, 

 delicious coffee. We hunted a few days more, and then, 

 with many regrets, packed our traps and bade farewell 

 to our guide, who had treated us so well and had done all 

 he could to make oxu* stay pleasant. We killed in all 

 during the trip eight deer, which, with the pleasure 

 and health derived, fully repaid us. A party of fisher- 

 men will start for this same region next summer after 

 trout, which are very abundant in these streams. They 

 will stay with Fred Martin, near Wilbur, and if they fail 

 to have a good time and catch plenty of trout it will be 

 their own fault. W. K. P. 



Athens, Pa. 



NEW JERSEY SHOOTING NOTES. 



TMIE famous woodcock cover around Dr. Roe's Island 

 JL in the valley of the Pequest, Warren county, N. J., 

 was partly destroyed by fire last whiter. Since then the 

 thicket and tall timber which fringed the upland to Mon- 

 ey Island have been cut off. Henceforth onions instead 

 of woodcock will be the crop of this once excellent shoot- 

 ing groimd. 



At one time prior to reclaiming the Great Meadows in 

 Warren county by drainage, there was not a surer find 

 for woodcock in the State of New J ersey. In those days 

 it was shot over by Dr. Paul Mead, Humphrey Hartshorne 

 and Bob Robinson, of Brooklyn ; John C. White, William 

 Dodd, Dr. Bowlby, Harry Duraud and Chas. F. Murphy. 

 Of In r wark. Since then the principal sportsmen who went 

 there were Arthur Duane of Bergen Point, John E. I. 

 Grainger, Arthur L. Sewell, Gilbert Spier, of this city, and 

 F. Satterthwaite of Newark. The place was kept quiet 

 and big bags were the result. Its glory, however, has 

 gone forever; and those excellent sportsmen, Messrs. 

 Beasley and Kelsey of Belvidere, will have to hunt up 

 another spot. 



The only swamp that is left, a tract of some 470 acres, 

 has recently been leased by Franklin Satterthwaite. It 

 is on the property of H. H. Van Deuser, it has been adver- 

 tised and legally posted and will be thoroughly protected 

 against the raids of the illegal market-hunters who infest 

 the section. Last season the Quick brothers of Danville, 

 and two companions killed over one hundred birds in this 

 swamp early in June. If they attempt to repeat their 

 dastardly work thev will be prosecuted if it costs the les- 

 see $1,000. 



Five miles north of the Van Deuser tract is the magnifi- 

 cent game preserve of Mr. Rutherfurd Stuyvesant of this 

 city. It is several miles in length and stretches across the 

 wide valley at Allamuchy. Besides being well stocked 

 with quail and ruffed grouse, the estate has some English 

 snipe bogs and several strips of woodcock cover. A beau- 

 tiful trout brook traverser the preserve, this was fished 

 last week by Mr. .Stuyvesant and his brothers, the Messrs. 

 Rutherfurd, of fox-terrier fame. Some time since Mr. 

 Stuyvesant introduced English pheasants and partridges 

 on his place but they did not thrive. This is perhaps ow- 

 ing to the immense "hordes of ground vermin and hawks 

 and owls in the district. 



Farmer Edward Fowler Bird of the Shades of Death, re- 

 ports that while traveling his swamp after cattle a short 

 time ago, he flushed a flock of Messina quail, some hun- 

 dred in number. He says the birds were in the vicinity 

 of Post's Island, and were the quail, no doubt, which Mr. 

 Stuyvesant put out on his estate last autumn. There are 

 several witnesses to prove that some Messina quail win- 

 tered in Waxren county. 



The grouse and quail wintered well in New Jersey. 

 This was owing to the warm rains which succeeded every 

 large fall of snow. It is a fact that there are more ruffed 

 grouse in the mountains of the northern counties of the 

 State at this time than for many years. When the crop 

 is ripe, we will begin to hear of the partridge fly again. 



Besides wilting the Beggar's Opera, the poet Gay had 

 something to say at one time or another about the wood- 

 cock : , 



"' He sung where woodcock in the summer feed. 

 And in what climate they renew their breed, 

 Some think to Northern coasts their flight they lend, 

 Or, to the moon in midnight hours ascend." 



If the poet had been standing below Sam Shelly's big 

 spring on the Wallkill the other night he would have seen 

 the 1 ' t'other dear charmer " get in her fine work to the 

 most approved taste. A ' ' spaMng " cock and a twittering 

 hen had come out to dance by the light of the moon, when 

 along came another dame of the Ibngbill persuasion, and 

 setting her night-cap for the croaking gallant, had what 

 appeared to be a pitched battle with the bird of her own 

 sex. She finally drove her off the field up into a moun- 

 tain swale, but where alas, the villain still pursued her. 



it is not generally known that woodcock during the 

 breeding season are apt to start their serenade early in the 

 evening and keep the mill a-going until late in. the night. 

 This is only, howeA 7 er, when the moon is near or at the full. 

 It is to be regretted that so many birds are shot by the 

 country people, many of whom are ignorant enough not to 

 know what they are shooting at. There was quite a rat- 

 tling of guns at" dusk last week along the Wallkill below 

 Liberty Corner, and several woodcock were killed. 



" Curly " McCracken, the champion trout fisherman of 

 Hackettstown, who keeps the American Hotel, is too much 

 crippled with rheumatism to fish this season. The niore's 

 the pity, for there are some good fish in the streams in the 

 vicinity. Mr. Arthur Duane got 19 fine big ones there the 

 other day. Col. Vallentine, a well-known shooting man 

 of Hackettstown, recently died in Canada. Steve Pyles, 

 wh o used to shoot more game in northern Jersey than 

 any other man, has laid down the game bag and the gun 

 and taken to chopping wood. So much for the march of 

 improvement. Every one is trying to buy the latest im- 

 proved breechloading doublebarrel gun, for $5 a piece at 

 Newton. 



The sportsmen who were tired of going snipe shooting 

 and getting nothing, missed it this season in New Jersey, 

 for there was quite a flight. This occurred late in March 

 when everything was ice and slush. The Von Lengerke 

 Brothers of Hoboken, as usual scooped in the cream of the 

 shooting on the Hackensack meadows. There were some 

 really very early birds in the lot. Pete Longstaft— it 

 would be "unintelligible to call him Peter — and his son 

 Henry have shot over one hundred snipe on the Newark 

 and Eiizabethtown meadows. Frank Class of Pine Brook, 

 got 18 snipe on Monday, April 11. This wasthe flight day 



of thatsection. Wm. Graham, the English pigeon shot, 

 is residing near Pine Brook flats. He goes sniping every 

 day. On the Troy meadows, the Hopping boys don't let a 

 snipe light down. C. F. Hedden, of Newark, got 12 snipe, 

 one day last week on the Ford Island meadows. Henry 

 Walker, of Hanover Neck, is prowling for snipe every 

 day. R. H. Brientnall and O. Von Lengerke, of Newark, 

 went to Pine Brook on April 13, one day after the fair. 

 They heard some guns but did not kill anything. The 

 Dukes boys, of East Newark, have been shooting a few 

 snipe every morning at Dry Point, on the Hackensack 

 meadows. Two snipe flew over Mr. George H. Raymond's 

 head, at Morristown on Saturdav last. Arthur Duane 

 killed 17 snipe on April 9, in Warren countv, and F. Sat- 

 terthwaite shot 36 on Monday, the 11th. At Mantoloking 

 there has been fairly good snipe shooting. The conductor 

 of the morning train from this city, lays over there for 

 two hours every day ; he gets from 6 to 15 every time he 

 goes out. Arthur L. Sewell shot 6 snipe on Runisen Neck 

 on April 4 ; and 10 at Point Pleasant on April 8. He found 

 the corpse of an old snipe shooter lying on the meadows 

 at the former place. 



There was very poor snipe shooting last spring and 

 autumn in the Western States. This spring owing to the 

 drought and dry condition of the prairies, the buds have 

 concentrated in vast numbers in certain localities. In 

 Missouri, they are very numerous above St. Louis. In 

 Southern Illinois an immense number of birds are being 

 killed and shipped. For any Eastern sportsman fond of 

 snipe shooting, this was the season to have gone West. It 

 appears that the same dry conditions have extended 

 throughout New Jersey and Delaware. 



Mr. David Keeler, of Rumsen Neck, has just put out 

 twenty pairs of English partridges. The quail which 

 were planted in this section last autumn have done re- 

 markably well. But few of them were shot last fall. 

 Rumsen Neck is well preserved, and pot-hunters need not 

 apply. Scolopax. 



SPOTS IN BARRELS. 



T HAVE had a good deal to do with guns in using and 

 A taking care of them, and under varied circumstances, 

 for long periods of camp and boat life, and while lying 

 in disuse. I have heard the putting away of guns un- 

 cleaned to prevent their rusting highly lauded. I have 

 tried and been bitten by it, having had my guns several 

 times severely rusted in consequence. When a gun is 

 thus put away, if its place and surroundings do not favor 

 rusting, it may not rust for along time: but if place and 

 surroundings do favor rusting, then the gun will rust, 

 and often much more seriously, apparently, in conse- 

 quence of the dirt. With fair trial I have failed to find 

 in it any security against rusting upon which I could 

 rely. 



Some guns rust much more easily than others, some 

 show little disposition to rust under even careless treat- 

 ment, and there are guns which it is almost impossi- 

 ble to keep rid of rust, qualities doubtless due mostly 

 to the kinds and condition of the metals from which they 

 are made. Some regions of country, some periods of 

 weather, moisture, and other subtle agencies, conduce 

 strongly to the production of rust; and again, in locali- 

 ties where the danger usually is specially imminent, there 

 will be considerable periods when there seems no ten- 

 dency to rust and scarcely any care is required. 



Warm and dry rooms and closets, and by preference 

 upper rooms, are the best places to keep guns to avoid 

 rust. As a rule, too, a gun is safer a few feet off from 

 the floor. A gun shop or store, or jeweler's store, are 

 about the best places in which to keep guns from rusting, 

 the ever warm and dried air and equable temperature 

 being favorable. I have had a breechloading shotgun, 

 after being thoroughly cleaned and oiled, laid in its case 

 on a shelf in a jewelry store for six months continuously 

 without requiring anything to be done for it and keeping 

 perfectly preserved, whereas if it had been kept in the 

 room which I made my quarters, the gun would ha ve 

 required overhauling much oftener than once a month. 



i have tried various brands of powder and qualities of 

 them, as the Hazard, Oriental, Lafiin & Rand and Dupont, 

 all good powders, and have seen no reason to suspect one 

 of conducing more to erosion of the gun than another. 

 The dirt resulting from the exploded cap is undoubtedly 

 specially deleterious and makes special care in cleaning 

 the gun necessary. 



1 have tried for application to the inside of the gun the 

 various oils, mercurial ointment, vaseline and various 

 mixtures, and found none to be anything more than aids 

 in protecting against rust — no one a specific against it so 

 that you donot need to keep a lookout on your gun after- 

 ward. According to my experience, when a gun that 

 has been shot is going to be put away for any length of 

 time or even Over night, if the weather is wet, it should 

 be well wiped out and dried, carefully oiled and set in a 

 dry, warm place. After the lapse of one to three days, 

 depending on weather and surroundings, wipe and "oil 

 a sain, and after about the same interval repeat the pro- 

 cess, after which the gun will be very much less likely to 

 ruot than if trusted to the single wiping, the reason being 

 probably that the repeated wiping more completely re- 

 moves the products of the burnt charges. One thorough 

 apolication of water might do the same. After this 

 thorough wiping or cleaning, look into your gun every 

 week or oftener; you may need once in awhile to oil 

 again. It is not the abundance of oil needed, but thor- 

 ough appbeation and good quality. The object of the oil 

 of course is to protect the surface of the metal against 

 the presence and action of the rust agent, oxygen, and 

 whether freshly applied or dried it should form a contin- 

 uous coating. On the whole I prefer the best sperm oil 

 when I can tie sure of obtaining it. 



The moment that rust specks or a "crop of them are dis- 

 covered it is all important to break them up thoroughly 

 at once and lub out their base, and watch the matter well 

 afterward, else you will find the basis of cln'oaic and in- 

 creasing difficulty surely laid. The best way to accom- 

 plish this is to use the wire brush or line emery, or wood 

 ashes may be used. Western duck hunters use the last 

 with much satisfaction. When the work of rust or the 

 specks are well fixed, the emery lathe is the thing, but 

 even this will not reach the bottom of old-time spots. 

 When rust spots appear, rub out rust and base when 

 practicable, or you w8 have the disease with you ever 

 after. The gun Will be kept well cased of course. While 

 in tent and boat life wipe and oil the gun daily, and in 

 damp weather if not shooting twice a day. 



These specks or measles in guns are simply rust. It* 



