Deo. 20, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



4 87 



Not a very satisfactory season on partridge closed in 

 Maine on Dec. 1. The shooting has generally been poor 

 on these birds in that State this fall, though it is noted 

 that there has been an increase of birds in the remote 

 woods, but that they have generally been scarce near the 

 settlements. The feeling is strongly in favor of asking 

 the coming legislature to change the beginning of the 

 open season to Sept. 15, instead of Sept. 1. The true item 

 is widespread that the birds are not fully grown on Sept. 

 1, and that they are still in flocks, making the work of 

 destruction by far too easy. It is probable that the legis- 

 lature will be petitioned to take this action by the more 

 reasonable of the hunting elements, but that it is likely 

 to be opposed by the farmers, in the interest of their boys. 

 But very few Maine partridges have reached the Boston 

 market this year. 



It seems that moose horns are not greatly appreciated 

 by the members of the Boston Chamber of Commerce. 

 Dr. Dixwell, a West Cedar street physician and naturalist, 

 sent word the other day to the committee on raising 

 funds for a testimonial to the bravery of the Hull life 

 savers in the recent storm, that he would give the finest 

 pair of antlers in his collection for the benefit of these 

 brave men, and they might be sold to the highest bidder 

 at some suitable time and place. His idea was that the 

 horns were worth $100 at the very least. It was decided 

 that the rooms of the Chamber of Commerce would be 

 the best place for the gift to be displaj r ed, and for the 

 sale to take place. Accordingly a very fine pair of moose 

 antlers were shown to the flour, grain and produce mer- 

 chants of the Hub for a week or more. The sale at auction 

 took place at the change hour last Friday. There was a 

 crowd of merchants present and the bidding was well 

 enough, up to about $25. but there it lagged. At last the 

 horns were knocked off to Mr, C. I. G-oodale, the Sudbury 

 street taxidermist, for $52.50. Mr. Goodale says that he 

 bid off the antlers, not for himself, but for F. Gordon 

 Dexter, a wealthy Bostonian and society man. Mr. 

 Goodale also says that he was prepared to have bid con- 

 siderably more than $100, had there been anybody to bid 

 against. * Special. 



"THE ETHICS OF ELK HUNTING." 



DENVER, Col., Dec. 8— In Forest and Stream of 

 Nov. 15 (which I have not seen until recently, 

 owing to absence), there is an account of a rather remark- 

 able hunt by J. E. Brown, Dall De Weese and L. E. 

 Frauck. The story purports to have been written by the 

 latter. The actors were Canon City (this State) nimrods, 

 and the scene of their exploits is located among and near 

 the Flat-top Mountains north of Grand River, just above 

 the mouth of Eagle River, in Garfield county, also in this 

 State. Following the narrative it appears that they set 

 out early in the morning of Sept. o, reached Dotsero, at 

 the junction of Grand and Eagle rivers, at noon of the 

 same day, found saddle and pack animals waiting, and 

 proceeded some miles into the wilderness for camp that 

 night. 



The next day they reached and camped at Sweet- 

 water Lake, where they camped, and caught seventeen 

 ' 'speckled beauties" for supper. 



The next day they progressed further, went into camp 

 and in the evening made a hunt, De Weese killing a buck 

 "that dressed 2G0ibs.. with fat an inch and a half thick 

 on the rump. His horns were large and very uniform 

 and in full velvet, making a fine trophy." 



The next two days they did not accomplish much, but 

 observed a great many tracks of elk and deer. 



The next day they hunted elk and wounded one in the 

 forenoon but failed to get it. The historian notes a 

 curious discovery, that is that elk frequent water holes to 

 wallow in the mud and water. When they returned to 

 camp it was discovered that their "San Juan canaries" 

 had taken the back track for Grand River. Mr. Brown 

 offered to go in pursuit of them. In the afternoon Mr. 

 De Weese and Mr. Franck again went hunting, found a 

 band of elk, fired into them and wounded the leader, "the 

 very monarch of the hills," but failed to get him. 



The next morning they were out early after the wounded 

 elk, followed up the trail, and eventually found and killed 

 him after firing seven shots. "He measured 15ft. 4in. from 

 hoof to point of antlers, and girthed 9ft. just back of the 

 shoulders. 



The next day Mr. Brown returned with the "mocking 

 birds," and felt very badly over the partiality of fate in 

 distributing her gifts. He got only music while the other 

 fellows killed meat. 



The next day they packed up and moved camp, but 

 soon ran into a flock of "silver-tip" bears and bowled over 

 two with scarcely an effort. A third one was wounded, 

 but got away. 



The next day they started for the railroad, and in the 

 evening as it was growing dusk they came upon a band 

 of eleven elk about a salt lick and 300yds. distan t. It was 

 too dark to see which ones had horns, yet they opened 

 fire and kept it up "until each one of us had brought down 

 an elk." Mr. Brown got a large bull, "having a particu- 

 larly fine set of antlers," probably as a slight compensa- 

 tion for his long pursuit of the "nightingales." 



The next day our mighty hunters reached the railroad, 

 and eventually arrived at home about midnight of Sept. 

 16. 



According to the story they had killed and recovered 

 one deer of 2601bs. , one elk of SOOlbs. , three elk in the dark, 

 one of which was very large, say GOOlbs., and the other 

 two we will guess at 4501bs. each, a total of 2,5601bs. This 

 makes no account of the two bears, nor of the elk that 

 were wounded and left to die. 



Now what possible use could these three butchers have 

 for a ton and a quarter of dressed meat in the ten days 

 from the time they killed the first deer until they left the 

 field? 25Glbs. of meat per day for three men, and one of 

 these absent half the time tra veling with an opera troupe. 



There is a law of this State which says: "No person 

 shall kill or wound, ensnare or trap, any elk, deer, buf- 

 falo or bison, fawn or antelope, within this State, between 

 the first day of January and the fifteenth day of October 

 in each and everv year." The same law provides as a 

 penalty for its vicl rfcton a fine of not less than $50 or more 

 than $200 for the first offense, and for each subsequent 

 offense a like fine of from $50 to $200 and imprisonment 

 in the county jail of not less than o0 or more than 90 days. 

 Mr. Franck confesses that he and Messrs. Brown and De 

 Weese killed five animals and wounded one. It is prob- 

 able that the eight unfortunates that escaped from the 

 night attack at the salt lick were all wounded, also. If 



so the hunt scored them fourteen separate and distinct 

 violations of the law. 



But there is a grain of comfort in the thought that it 

 maybe all a fairy story. It contains certain visionary 

 features and suspicious ear marks. The attention of our 

 Fish and Game Protective Commission has been called to 

 the narrative, and if it proves to be anything more than 

 spirit shadows of a waking dream, Forest and Stream 

 may hear of Messrs. Franck. Brown and De Weese again 

 later on. W. N. B. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CIHICAGO, 111., Dec. 13.— Frank Wood is now on the 

 ' New Madrid marsh, of Missouri, with two gentle- 

 men of Joliet, Messrs. Claflin and Sawyer. A letter 

 received by Tim from him stated that they had killed 

 thirty ducks on the day before; that deer were reported 

 plentiful, and that they were going into the swamp till 

 they got one. 



In a week or so Mr. W. B. Chatfield, of this city, will 

 start for a prolonged duck hunt in the South, accom- 

 panied by Tim Wood as pusher and assistant. They go 

 to Galveston, Texas, and will there hire a schooner. 

 Should they not find the ducks near Galveston, they will 

 keep on to the Mexican coast. Mr. Chatfield is really the 

 advance man of the party, and will be joined soon by 

 Mi-. Cox and Mr. Jesse Cummings, who will take Frank 

 Wood along with them, as soon as he gets back from 

 Missouri. 



I. R. Long and George Halbleib, market hunters of the 

 Lake Senachwine country, returned a week ago from the 

 New Madrid swamp, above referred to. They took down 

 their boats, decoys, and a load of ammunition, but found 

 no shooting at all. The natives said the ducks had all 

 gone on south. That seems to be the story evei-y where. 

 The New Madrid marsh is near the Arkansas line, and is 

 about seventy-five by one hundred and twenty-five miles 

 in extent. It is the home of countless market shooters. 

 Non-resident shooters are charged a license under the 

 State law, I believe. 



The three-year law in Illinois on pinnated and ruffed 

 grouse has been a success, and has been respected to a 

 great extent even by the natives in the Illinois River 

 country, where the destruction of game and fish has been 

 about as ruthless as could possibly be. One Hunter, of 

 Bureau county, was fined $125 for violation of the prairie 

 chicken law this year. This had a salutary effect. Once 

 in a while the way of the transgressor is hard; note the 

 fate of the Michigan man who this fall set out a spring 

 gun for deer and shot himself in the legs with it. He- 

 died, I believe. I am sorry for that, and also sorry he 

 set out the gun. 



In the Illinois River country prairie chickens have 

 again become quite plentiful. There are also some few 

 quail, and in the bluffs along Bureau Creek ruffed grouse 

 are quite numerous. Another man and I killed eight 

 squirrels, gray and fox, in a short hunt near Bureau. 

 Settlers say there are more squirrels than for years past 

 in that locality. 



The disastrous scarcity of ducks this fall has left an 

 emptiness in many an ex-market shooter's pockets, since 

 when there are no ducks there is no need for pushers. 

 This fact has impressed itself upon the market-hunting 

 mind, and one can now hear a good deal of talk about a 

 better observance of the game laws, and a less indiscrim- 

 inate destruction of game. Some shooters, seeing the 

 benefit of the three years' law on prairie chickens, are in 

 favor of as long a close season upon wild ducks. Beyond 

 question, this would be a good step in game preservation, 

 though hard upon the shooters. A close term for a series 

 of years leaves less loophole for violators, and they be- 

 come better used to abstinence when abstinence is pro- 

 longed. A close term for a few months yearly does not 

 receive much respect, but make it three or four years, 

 and hardly a gun will be taken down. It seems to work 

 so in this State at least. 



There were a few Canada geese using on the Hennepin 

 "goose pond" the first of this week, and a small bunch 

 also frequented a pond across the river from that place. 

 From the club house observatory at Swan Lake, on the 

 morning of Dec. 11, we could by the glass see a bunch of 

 about 300 mallards and mixed ducks in an open spot in 

 the middle of Mud Lake. Swan Lake and the big sloughs 

 froze tight the night before. A flock of fifty-six bluebills 

 were using on the Illinois River, in the timber. The 

 river was still open. "Old Man Wood," the father of the 

 Wood boys, and a trapper on these lakes for forty years, 

 said he had never seen ducks so scarce as they have been 

 this fall. 



Snow fell, to the depth of about Sin. in this State 

 Dec. 11 and 12. E. Hough. 



THE KEENE BULLET. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of Dec. 6 Mr. Roosevelt asks that some of 

 your correspondents give him, through your columns, 

 their experience with the Keene bullet. While I regret I 

 have not had the opportunity to test them on big game 

 that has been afforded him, my hunting having been 

 done in the Adirondacks, Maine and Canada, yet they 

 have given me entire satisfaction, and are in my judg- 

 ment much more deadly than the solid bullet. I began 

 using them ten years ago, in a "Rocky Mountain" Bal- 

 lard carrying the regulation Government cartridge. 

 These I used to load myself, and at any reasonable dis- 

 tance they were sure death when used in this rifle. Later 

 I bought a Winchester .45-60, model of '76, and had my 

 cartridges made by the company, and I found them on 

 moose and deer to be exactly what is claimed for them by 

 the maker. My experience is that they do not act as a 

 solid bullet; on the contrary, more like a charge of heavy 

 buckshot, and I think it not improbable that it is because 

 there was less powder behind them than he uses; his 

 heavy charge giving them too much penetration. I re- 

 member but one deer that I have shot, since I commenced 

 using them, that was not dead when I got to it, and that 

 one was killed, when, it being so dark that I could not 

 see where to place the bullet, and simply firing at the 

 deer, did not strike a vital spot. 



The only objection I have found to them is that if a 

 deer is struck in the ham, the wound that they make is 

 so large that much of the meat is spoiled. The only other 

 large animal I have tried them on was a gray wolf, last 

 summer; however, he did not stop long enough for me to 



j see the result of the shot. W. F. Ladd. 



I Galveston, Texas. 



MEGANTIC FISH AND GAME CLUB. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



A large and well-attended meeting of the directors of 

 the Megantic Club was held in the Quincy House, Boston, 

 on Saturday evening, Dec. 8, when it was unanimously 

 voted to advance the price of admission (the shares in 

 the corporation) $25 after Jan. 1, 1890. 



Among the gentlemen whose application for member- 

 ship was considered were Messrs. Chas. W. Sheppard of 

 Newton, Mass.: Waldo B. Hastings of Boston; E. A. Dow 

 of Woburn, Mass.; Walter C. Prescott, of Kidder, Pea- 

 body & Co., Boston, and Theron G, Strong of New York. 



It was decided to hold the annual meeting and dinner 

 on Tuesday, Jan. 22, the meeting at 5 P. M. and the dinner 

 at 7 P. M. Among the guests to be invited, prominent in 

 fish and game matters, are the fish and game commis- 

 sioners of Massachusetts, Maine and Canada, the presi- 

 dents of the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective As- 

 sociation, Massachusette Rifle Association, Inglewood 

 Fish and Game Club, and the Blooming Grove Park As- 

 sociation of New York. Mayor-elect Hart, Mayor Russell 

 of Cambridge, Rev. Phillips Brooks and Rev." Charles F. 

 Lee are also among the invited guests. "Adirondack" 

 Murray, who lately joined the club, will be present. 



Very encouraging reports are coming in from the game 

 wardens upon the preserve at Lake Megantic and Dead 

 River, they report deer never so plentiful as at the pres- 

 ent time. Two deer passed through the door yard of the 

 Dominion Overseer of Fisheries at Megantic last week, 



Mr. Harry L. Wilbur, of Philadelphia, a member of 

 the club, shot a fine deer at Massachusetts Bog last week, 

 and reports the ground in the vicinity of the frozen lakes 

 as literally covered with deer tracks. The opportunities 

 for still-hunting are not very good now, owing to the 

 want of fresh snow, but he succeeded in bagging one on 

 the runways. Megantic. 



A Barnegat Club. — Barnegat City, N. J., Dec. 11. — 

 The Bonnat Gunning and Fishing Association has been 

 organized by a number of well-known New Jersey gun- 

 ners. One of the objects of the association is the protec- 

 tion of game at Barnegat Bay. The association has 

 plenty of capital at its back, and will stock its preserves 

 with both game and fish. The members favor only legiti- 

 mate sport, and its executive committee will vigorously 

 prosecute all who violate the New Jersey game laws. 

 The club house is nearly completed. It is situated on 

 Lazy Point, opposite Bonnat Island, about fourteen miles 

 below Barnegat City. Next spring the association will 

 stock Manahawkin Bay with several kinds of game fish. 

 Among the stockholders are ex-Congressman Charles 

 Haight, Surrogate David Crater, County Clerk James H. 

 Patterson and Sheriff Theodore Fields, of Freehold; ex- 

 Judge Benjamin P. Morris, of Long Branch; A. Wood, 

 Harold E. Willard and ex- Assemblyman George W. Pat- 

 terson, of Asbury Park. 



Massachusetts Killdeer Plover. — Boston, Mass., 

 Dec. 6. — As a result probably of the great gale of last 

 week, in the Boston markets there has appeared quite a 

 number of killdeer plover within the past few days. To 

 see these birds on our coast at any time of the year is an 

 unusual event, even to persons who make shore bird 

 shooting a regular practice; but for them to be killed on 

 the Shirley, Winthrop, Essex and other beaches to the 

 north of Boston after the first of December, at once raises 

 the question, where did they come from? — Hub. 



Kansas City, Mo., Dec. 10.— Our unsettled weather 

 this fall has caused poor bags of game in this vicinity; 

 one day cold, next day warm, game killed on the cold 

 days will spoil on the warm ones, so there is little satis- 

 faction shooting fur or feather, but if the weather 

 prophets are correct these things will soon change. — E. 

 N..W. 



Bethel, Maine. — Partridges were never more abund- 

 ant than this winter. You can hardly go ten rods in any 

 of our woods without seeing plenty of tracks in the light 

 snows, and a great many birds have have been shot. — J. 



G. R. , ... 



"That reminds me." 

 247. 



A COMBINATION fish and snake story is being told on 

 August Bush, F. Stippe and W. Hess. They went 

 to Bush Station, in Pike county, this State, to enjoy a 

 few days' angling. The party took with them a fish box 

 for the purpose of keeping what fish they caught alive 

 until ready to return home. The story goes that Stippe 

 went to the box to put in some fish which he had landed, 

 Hess, by the way, accompanying him. Both have a 

 mortal fear of snakes. When they came to the box, to 

 their horror, there was a large moccasin on the box, with 

 his head between the slats of the fish box. Stippe and 

 Hess aver that it was fully 6ft. in length, with a fine 

 croppie in its jaws, preventing the serpent from with- 

 drawing, as it seemed anxious to do when Stippe attacked 

 it with an oar. In its struggle a slat was torn off, and 

 the snake made a sudden flop and landed right in the 

 boat. The latter was not a very small one, but it was 

 too small to hold those two fishers and a mad water 

 moccasin : so Hess jumped out and swam ashore. Stippe, 

 who could not swim, jumped on the box, which sank 

 gradually until he was up to his neck in the water. 

 Meantime the motion imparted to the boat by the jump 

 sent it out of his reach. Hess went to the camp to 

 change clothing and forgot all about his companion, who 

 was left on the box, holding to the stake. Half an hour 

 later others of the party returned in another boat, and 

 after relieving Stippe found the deserted boat with his 

 moccasinship coiled up and hugely enjoying the mellow 

 rays of a November sun. Quite a fight was necessary, 

 however, and it surrendered only when it had been ren- 

 dered inanimate by one of the party. Unser Fritz. 

 St. Loots, Nov. 8, 



Washington, D. C, Aug. 24, 1888.— The 77. S. Cartridge Co., 

 Lowell, Mass.: Gentlemen— I have used about 10,000 of your Cli- 

 max paper shells this year, and not a single bursted head. A3 

 long as you keep them up to their present high standard 1 will 

 continue to use them in preference to all other makes. Very re- 

 spectfully (Signed) James AL Green, of Green & Cunningham*** 



