144 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Sept. 13, 1888. 



'mm §ng mid (§nt\. 



THE WOODCHUCK CREEK COUNTRY. 



m. — SOLID— CONTINUED. 



VI/' INTER had indeed firmly inclosed all nature within 

 Vt his icy embrace. Old Aaron's predictions were 

 fulfilled, and the quartette of hunters were happy. But 

 what a transformation during the past twenty' hours ! 

 From fog. rain and mud; from cheerless dripping woods, 

 we waken to a scene of dazzlmg, bewildering beauty: the 

 sun shone upon one grand expanse of snow, which 

 sparkled and gleamed in the flood of light with the bril- 

 liancy of diamonds a hundred fold intensified. The lake 

 was frozen for several rods from the shore, and this too 

 had the same snowy mantle; beyond that the open water 

 flashed in the same bright rays: the forest that skirted 

 the lake was hung with a thousand fanciful and fairy- 

 like festoons, while the low brush and smaller shrubbery 

 were half hidden beneath the soft white covering. Every- 

 body and everything in the Castle was astir at an early 

 hour, and one glance out of the window told us plainly 

 that the weather we had longed for, and the opportunity 

 w*e had craved, had been graciously vouchsafed to us; 

 there was nothing left to do but be grateful and get ready 

 to enjoy both. 



Aaron's shining phsyiognomy appeared at the door with, 

 "Bre'fast is about ready now, genTmen, and ef you is, 

 I'll hev it on de board in jes no time." 



"You cannot get it there too quick for us, old Tipstaff." 



It was a bountiful spread that was laid out for us, and 

 with that keen appreciation of the efforts of our unfail- 

 ing ally of the kitchen, we fell to, meanwhile formulat- 

 ing a plan for the day. 



"Boys, it means venison to-day, and if we do not each 

 one of us have a good fat buck on our score by nightfall, 

 I shall foi-ever cease to build any hopes upon appear- 

 ances." 



"General, as you are thoroughly posted on the country 

 about here, suppose you give us an outline of procedure, 

 and we'll discuss it. 



"I can do that in ten minutes or less. We go with rifles 

 only. You, Doctor, and the Chronicler, I propose, shall 

 strike out along the west shore of the lake, keeping pretty 

 well back in the woods; I, with Sisyphus here, will make 

 for the creek bottoms, each taking one of the hounds. 

 We will take a course up the stream for a couple of miles, 

 bearing round to the north. You two leave your straight 

 route when the little opening is reached, and gradually 

 swing west and south, by which means we can probably 

 meet about noon. After a luncheon and a comparison of 

 notes, we will proceed to drive toward home in a semi- 

 circle covering say a mile. How does that suit?" 



"No drawbacks to that, apparently, from our present 

 standpoint, but of course it is subject to changes and 

 modification that may be necessary as the day pro- 

 gresses." 



"It's only an outline, remember; whatever turns up to 

 make changes necessary will be dealt with at discretion." 



"What is the distance from this point to the clearing, 

 and what do you say to skirting it to the east and north 

 and taking in the ravine that extends from the lake back 

 as far as Hanson's place?" the Chronicler inquired of the 

 General and the Doctor both at once. 



"The distance is a little better than two miles, and the 

 proposed detour around the clearing to the ravine would, 

 in my opinion, be an excellent route." 



The further plans were thoroughly discussed, and so 

 was the breakfast, at the conclusion of which we finished 

 our preparations and were soon at the door, with the part- 

 ing injunction to Aaron: "Have something hot and solid 

 for us at 5 o'clock, sharp, old man. and see that the cof- 

 fee — well, in a word, let nothing be neglected." 



"Sartain, sartain, Gineral, you dun found everything in 

 good shape"; and then as the door closes! he continued 

 the conversation with himself: "It's mighty cu'r'ous, 

 anyhow, dat he allershas to give some sech orders — never 

 hed anything to go wrong yit, never hearn no complaints, 

 never seen 'em even look like anything didn't suit 'em. 

 Wall, I s'pose it's kinder habit, rnos' likely. Ennyhow I 

 shan't take no 'fense agin them fellers; better ones neber 

 was put down on to this yere. broad yearth. I only wish 

 dere was more like 'em, dat's what dis nigger wishes." 



The quartette separated as agreed, each taking his 

 appointed path. About four inches of snow had fallen, 

 which fortunately had not drifted; the earth was frozen 

 solid beneath and walking was good. The Chronicler and 

 his companion made good, time for half a mile, when the 

 woods became more dense and the underbrush a little 

 heavier, to some extent impeding their progress, at least 

 causing their speed to slacken. Then the hazels and 

 elders became less frequent, and the woods a little further 

 on were comparatively free from both, but the growth of 

 hickories and oak and walnut was immense, the gigantic 

 trunks towering a hundred feet. 



As we passed the last clump of hazel bushes, the Doctor 

 called attention to numerous tracks in the snow, which 

 were made by some small animal, probably in search of 

 food. A little further on we saw the evidence that a 

 flock of turkeys had roosted in the vicinity the previous 

 night, and while we were discussing the probable direc- 

 tion they took in leaving the place, we heard a sound 

 away off to our left that caused us to exchange signifi- 

 cant glances. "Suppose we separate say eighty rods and 

 beat down in that direction, sending old Major off on a 

 drive. He knows the details of that business better than 

 half the hunters, and is evidently eager to be at it." 



"Right you are, Doctor, I will keep on straight ahead, 

 and you bear sharply to the left, and we will in my 

 opinion know Avhat those sounds were in less than 

 twenty minutes. It was a deer, no doubt, and as soon as 

 Ma j. strikes his trail, we'll hear music as sweet as ever 

 saluted a hunter's ear." 



Cautiously and quiet we moved on our allotted lines, 

 the snow muffling our footsteps, and the huge trunk of 

 oak and hickory and walnut affording excellent shelter 

 in case the game should be driven our way. Half an 

 hour we tramped along, each hidden from sight of the 

 other, when the hounds gave tongue in melodious notes, 

 almost at the same moment there was a crash in the un- 

 derbrush, and a second later a sharp report from the 

 Doctor's rifle, and a fine buck sprang into sight as I peeped 

 from my hastily found place of concealment. The animal 

 stopped for a moment, head erect and one foot raised, as 

 if listening for the sounds of pursuit. It was a thrilling 



picture, and I was not in a mood for prolonged admira- 

 tion at a distance, preferring a possible chance of a closer 

 inspection. I raised my rifle, and with quick though 

 steady aim, covered a snot a few inches back of his 

 shoulder, and sped the bullet on its mission. I felt abso- 

 lutely certain of my game, but the noble fellow gave a 

 bound and darted hke an ari'0'w straight into the forest. 

 If I felt that my ami was sure, and the shot effective, t 

 was confirmed in my belief by the sudden lowering of 

 the deer's flag, a never- failing' sign that a fatal wound 

 had been given. Confident that it was but a question of 

 a short time with the bounding buck, I quickly reloaded 

 and started on his track. I was soon upon the spot w here 

 he had stood when struck, where the bright crimson spots 

 upon the snow doubly confirmed the tale, and then guided 

 me along his course. Another report off on my left told 

 me that the Doctor had had another "view," and im- 

 mediately there came the pulse-stirring sounds of the 

 long rapid jumps of another antlered monarch, accom- 

 panied by the baying of the hound. The wary game 

 evidently scented the nearness of danger ahead, for he 

 suddenly changed direction, and I could hear him dash- 

 ing along far to the west, and soon all sounds ceased. 

 Assuring myself that there was nothing further to wait 

 for, I started again upon the blood-stained trail of my 

 own victim. The tracks, which had been far apart, 

 showing the tremendous leaps made by the desperate 

 thing in its race against fate, now became closer together, 

 showing slacking speed, then closer still, when, twenty 

 rods further, in a slight hollow at the foot of a sycamore. 

 I came upon the noble quarry stretched upon the snow. 



He was not quite dead when t arrived, and remember- 

 ing the experience, with a deer's sharp hoofs of some three 

 years previous, I was cautious in my movements about 

 the "fallen foe." He was a noble specimen. I put the 

 struggling animal out of his misery with a bullet through 

 his heart; then with my knife "gently passed the gleam- 

 ing blade athwart his' neck." Bending down a young 

 hickory sapling, which required all my strength, I secured 

 the hindlegs to one of the lower branches, and with the 

 recoil of the tree the deer swung clear of the ground, in 

 which position the work of dressing him was a compara- 

 tively easy one. I now took a course south, and soon 

 came upon the tracks of the Doctor, which were pointing 

 in the same direction as my own. Judging from this 

 that he had probably secured a deer, and having disposed 

 of him, as I had done with mine, was now making the 

 circuit, intending to effect a junction with the General 

 and Sisyphus, I followed in his tracks, and a merry 

 tramp lie led me, too. Once I heard the baying of the 

 hounds, but I had no expectation of seeing another deer, 

 and in this I was not disappointed. My route took me 

 near a large cornfield of Hanson, our farmer neighbor, 

 and I was on the lookout for a drove of turkeys, which I 

 knew were in the habit of going thither to feed. Sure 

 enough, just as I reached the extreme end of the field, 

 and gathered near a stack of unbusked corn, there were 

 a dozen or more of the "bronze beauties." From my 

 Xjosition, with my Scott 10-gauge, I could easily have 

 taken down a couple of the birds, but with a rifle even I 

 was so sure of one at that distance that I was less cautious 

 than prudence would have dictated. I selected what I 

 judged to be the patriarch of the company, and let the 

 blue lips of "Joan" talk to him. The old fellow gracefully 

 tumbled over, and the companions ungracefully beat 

 such a hasty retreat that by the time I had another load 

 ready they were out of sight and hearing. 



I found him a sturdy gobbler enough, and "dead as 

 Ca??ar," the bullet having as neatly cut his throat as a 

 knife could do it. I bled him again, however, and, after 

 resting a while, swung his majesty over my shoulder 

 and trudged along. He gained two pounds in weight 

 every half mile, so, by the time I reached the point of 

 rendezvous, I judged its weight to have reached some- 

 where about 501bs, ; this was, however, afterward found 

 to be too high an estimate by some 321bs. I found the 

 two seated on a fallen tree, from which they had brushed 

 the snow, and comfortably partaking of a very substantial 

 luncheon, which seemed to me so sensible a course that 

 without loss of time or words I did something in that line 

 myself. 



"What — what — you haven't been doing all that firing 

 and making all that fuss this morning over that one 

 solitary old gobbler, I hope?" opened up Sisyphus. 



"What have you got to show that's any better, old 

 Stick-in-the-mud?" 



"My game is generally of that size that I don't carry it 

 around on my back to any alarming extent." 



"No, that's true. A very diminutive game bag will 

 generally accommodate your score. I have in mind now 

 some startling achievements of yours on our annual 

 campaign." 



"Doctor, let those youths go on with their controversy 

 and tell me what you have done. Well, I do not ques- 

 tion, both you and that gun of yours are generally able to 

 give good account of yourselves." 



"I can't complain, with any consistency, of my after- 

 noon's success. When the Chronicler and I separated a 

 little this side the clearing, after a signal to do so, which 

 we considered well defined, Maj. set off on one of his 

 well-intelligent and thoroughly successful drives to the 

 thicket on our left, whence came the sound we thought 

 significant. It was perhaps fifteen minutes, and the dog 

 500yds. away, when a tremendous crash through the 

 underbrush was followed by the appearance in the open 

 of a buck and doe, the former a magnificent chap, the 

 latter of good size, and they were going at a sharp gait; 

 and I was a little bit nervous, I will admit. But I pulled 

 on the buck, who was a little in the lead, and missed; but 

 the doe did not fare so well; the ball intended for her 

 companion took her through the neck, but did not check 

 her mad career, so I gave her the other barrel, and she 

 stopped inside of a rod. The buck went like the wind, 

 and, I suppose, is goingyet, unless the Chronic there should 

 have chanced to get in an accidental shot." 



"Which he didn't. Not for Joe. No accidental shots 

 in my locality to-day. But, gentlemen, if you particu- 

 larly hanker after seeing the finest buck that has been 

 killed in the Woodchuck Creek country in late years, I 

 shall take great pleasure in gratifying your desires." 



"What! do you mean to say that you really and actu- 

 ally got that elegant fellow that passed me?" 



"I don't know whom he passed, but I can name a per- 

 son whom he did not pass, if that will afford you any 



Eleasure; after I heard your rifle I heard the chap coining 

 ke a cyclone, stepped behind a tree, and as he came 

 abreast of me, two hundred yards away, Joan orated 



in her usual emphatic style and with so much eloquence 

 that Mr. Buck finally agreed to stay with us." 



"Bravo! bravissimo! bravissimof" yelled the impulsive 

 Sisyphus, "that's a mate to mine." 



"What! all got a deer but me," solemnly and slowly 

 uttered the General; "if that is the case "it is the first 

 instance on record." 



"It's past 1 o'clock; suppose all get back to the camp; 

 put the team in the jumper and get the game into the meat 

 box before dinner," proposed the Doctor, 



"Oh, it will be safe enough where it is to-night." 



"It will be a good deal safer, though, in its (proper place 

 back of the kitchen." 



"All right, old Wisdom; let's get about it at once." 



The jumper was making the rounds with all four hun- 

 ters, taking up first the Chronicler's, then the Doctor's and 

 finally a very nice fat doe killed by Sisyphus. We were 

 turning homeward when the General casually suggested: 

 'fit will be about as near home if you drive down. by that 

 old half burned oak, the big hollow tree where the In- 

 dians had their camp four years ago, and from there you 

 know it is almost as smooth a road as a turnpike."' 



So by that route we proceeded. Just as we reached 

 the big hollow tree there was a universal shout: "Great 

 shadow of Nimrod! Look at that! What is it? An ele- 

 phant!" 



There, hanging from the butt of a broken limb of the 

 ancient oak, was an object that might well have called 

 forth the shouts that greeted it, and as Sisyphus re- 

 marked: "Now that's worth while! that is what old 

 what's-his-name had in mind when he was warbling about 

 the 'antlered monarch of the waste' and all that sort 

 of thing — antlered monarch! Well I should smile! - ' 



"General, this is too bad! Here we've been modestly 

 and silently chuckling to ourselves this hour past, that 

 at last the champion was outdone — whitewashed so to 

 speak; and here he coolly walks off with all the honors. 

 By Jove, that's tough!" 



"Well, boys, I'll take it all back, and promise to do so 

 no more; how I got this chap I'll tell you this evening." 



With the party seated around the "feast of fat things," 

 recounting the events of the day, we will leave the con- 

 tented quartette, "with good digestion to wait on appe- 

 tite, health on both," and Aaron on all four. Keuka. 

 ||to be continued.] 



OLD MEMORIES. 



Editor Forest audi Stream: 



Dr. R. W. Shufeldt's article on "The Woodchuck," in 

 the Forest and Stream of Aug. 23, carried me back, not 

 in imagination, but in reality, nearly three score years, 

 when flintlock "musquets," steel traps, figure-4 "dead- 

 falls and pigeon nets constituted about all the implements 

 used in capturing fur and feather; and they were effective 

 to a large extent. But the success attending their use 

 was doubtless owing more to the then abundance of 

 game than to the skill of the hunter. The term "sports- 

 men," as now understood, was not used in those days. 



Many a time and many a mile has the writer tramped 

 over the then wooded hills, fields and swamps of eastern 

 Dutchess with his father's flintlock, a relic of the Revolu- 

 tionary war. What a host of incidents does that old 

 musket call up. 



How well do I remember my first rabbit with it, and 

 the ruse my unlucky companion played with that rabbit. 

 If this should meet his eye, I trust he may be heard 

 from. He borrowed my rabbit and exhibited it at his 

 home as evidence of his prowess as a hunter. Having 

 been duly praised, he was directed to lay the game in the 

 back pantry; but in doing so was careful to raise the 

 window sash, and then had business outside. The game 

 was soon restored to its rightful owner, while the blame 

 was laid to the cat, "who must have stolen it and car- 

 ried it off through the open widow." 



My first partridge (Boyiasa wmbellus) also had a history .. 

 I was trudging along through the snow with my game' 

 when a gentleman overtook me and invited me to ride,, 

 which I was very glad to do. He at once bantered me 

 for the bird, making me several offers, which I steadily 

 refused to accept, till at last he raised his offer to the 

 munificent sum of twenty-five cents — or rather "two 

 shillings," as money was then counted— for a twelve- 

 year-old country boy to refuse such a sum was something 

 remarkable; but it did not move me in the least; and if 

 he had offered to throw in his horse and cutter it would 

 not have changed the result; until the trophy had been 

 shown to the home circle, and home it went. 



About the home of my boyhood woodchucks were very 

 numerous, very troublesome, and the source of much 

 sport to us youngsters, and some older heads. Where is 

 the country boy, now bald or silverheaded, who does not 

 remember the excitement and hurry with which he 

 responded to the call of his or a neighboring dog, which had 

 run a woodchuck to cover in a pile of rails or into a stone 

 wall? Work must wait until the game was killed or 

 driven from cover, when the tussle with the dog and 

 chuck was often a bloody one for both parties. 



But my most successful and profitable sport in those 

 days was as a trapper. Many were the foxes, woodchucks, 

 muskrats, skunks*. weasels, etc., that felt the deadly grip 

 of my double-spring steel trap, all of which had a small 

 market value at the country store, and provided me with 

 aniniunition for the old musket and other necessaries. , 



There was one old 'chuck that for a long time baffled 

 all attempts at capture. The entrance to his burrow was 

 nearly perpendicular for some feet, which precluded all 

 ordinary modes of capture by trap, twitchup or dead- 

 fall. After thinking the matter over for a long time a 

 plan of operations was hit upon, which in the end proved 

 successful. The steel trap was carefully set, but with no 

 bait, and turned upside down over the burrow, rods were 

 run through the bent springs and the trap raised just 

 high enough not to hit the margin of the hole when 

 sprung. Having thus arranged my plan I retired to 

 await results, which were not looked for speedily, as I 

 knew that the disturbance about the hole would make 

 the game suspicious and cautious. But believing there 

 was no other opening to the burrow I felt sure that in 

 time my plan would succeed, unless Mr. 'Chuck should 

 dig another exit, which they will often do. 



Several visits showed that nothing had been disturbed, 

 and that the game was still in retirement. But another 

 day, everything was changed, and there hung my 'chuck, 

 stone dead, with the jaws of the faithful trap closed 

 around its neck. In attempting to come out he had 

 touched the pan with his nose, and the result was as ex- 



