Nov. 31^ 1889.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



847 



full of flymg quail, the cover was so dense and difficult 

 that we made but a very poor showing. The season was 

 very dry, and the frost had not yet cut down the vegeta- 

 tion; therefore, though the dogs did their best, they ren- 

 dered comparatively little assistance either by pointing 

 or retrieving. We lost dozens of birds that fell in the 

 tangled thickets, and, indeed, spent more time Looking 

 for dead birds than in hunting for live ones. 



We had any amount of shooting, mostly snap-shooting 

 in the hardest kind of cover. Shooting in all about two 

 half days, we killed considerably over 100 birds, yet the 

 number actually bagged averaged only about a dozen 

 and a half to each gun. Mr. Donald's dog Smike, a 

 promising young English setter, was sick and unfit to 

 work, and the pointer Lee seemed actuated by some sub- 

 tle sympathy with him, and also lagged close at heel. It 

 was a case of every man his own retriever, and many was 

 the jest or deep-mouthed exclamation which followed on 

 this work. I never was on a, hunt where so many birds 

 were lost. Still, we had all the fun that anybody ever 

 did have, and two pleas™ ter days must indeed have been 

 rare ones for any shooter. We.did not need to walk very 

 far, but strolled and chatted leisurely through the tinted 

 autumn woods, the sere and yellow corn or the many- 

 handed thicket. It was a pleasant time, and one to make 

 a shooter regret that such days of upland shooting are so 

 rare, 



T said we did not walk far. I wonder if any shooter 

 has an idea how far he does walk in a day? Mr. Donald 

 had a pocket pedometer with him, and at the end of the 

 first day this machine showed that we had traveled seven- 

 teen miles and a half, though we had at no time been 

 over four miles from the car. When Mr. Donald saw 

 the record, he gasped, and declared he couldn't go on 

 any coon hunt or bee-tree expedition that night. The 

 rest of us, who didn't have any record, concluded to go 

 out, Mack Middleton having produced in open court his 

 celebrated coon dog, which being critically examined 

 under the bench show standard for coon dogs, was given 

 a vhc. on the spot. Scott, the colored cook, had never 

 been on a coon hunt, and *so we took him along. He car- 

 ried the ax. Mr. Smith carried his gun. Mr. Middleton 

 ca rried the lantern and Mr. Burton carried the pedometer, 

 representing the scientific corps of the coon hunt, and 

 resolved to establish reliable data bearing upon such ex- 

 peditions. 



The dog in hand was not an old dog, but he had that 

 old look which all true coon dogs have, and proved him- 

 self possessed of a ripe experience in his specialty. He 

 climbed up on stumps, sniffed about the trees, and even 

 ran along the top of the rail fences for rods at a time 

 — a thing none of us had ever seen any other coon dog 

 do to a similar extent. He was, so to speak, a dandy, 

 and the. only trouble about him was that he gave the 

 pedometer a' hot box long before midnight. We treed in 

 all three coons; one up a hollow tree, where we couldn't 

 get him out, one in a big tree where we couldn't "shine 

 his eyes," and one in a small tree where we did shine his 

 eyes with the lantern and knock him out with the shot- 

 gun, much to the delight of Scott and the dog, who both 

 at once fell upon him. 



This ' -shining" of a coon is something which takes con- 

 siderable experience and skill. Mr. Middleton was an 

 adept at it. He tells us that an old coon which has been 

 hunted will shut its eyes, or only peep out of a comer of 

 one eye at the light. When "shined," the eyes of a coon 

 look like two little balls of- green fire, distinctly resemb- 

 ling some phases of a fine opal. 



We learned another thing about coon hunting, when 

 we saw Mr. Middleton tying a band of paper and rags 

 about the trunk of a tree where we had a coon treed, but 

 could not see him. "'A coon won't cross a line like that 

 at night," said he, l< but will stay up the tree till after 

 daybreak. I have come back to a tree early in the morn- 

 ing that way many a time and got Mr. Coon. They come 

 down a tree backward, and if they touch anything out of 

 the common, it scares 'em." 



At 1 o'clock in the morning we paused in our nocturnal 

 wanderings, and lying down among the leaves fell to 

 telling stories. "We might as well wait," said Mr. Mid- 

 dleton, "and let the dog work around till he strikes 

 trail." So we waited, and told stories, and lay and lied 

 by the light of the lantern for an hour or so. 



"Seems to me like that dog is an awful long time 

 striking a trail, " said somebody: but still we had confi- 

 dence in him, until at length a suppressed titter attracted 

 our attention, and looking behind the log we found the 

 dog lying on his back, convulsed with laughter at one of 

 Charley Burton's stories. That dog was no fool. He 

 wasn't going off in the woods by himself while Charley 

 Burton was there telling stories. 



We went home then, and when we reached the car it 

 was nearly § o'clock hi the morning. Mr. Burton looked 

 at the pedometer, and nearly fainted when he saw that 

 it registered 38 miles. That included the whole day and 

 the night's walking. We started out again soon after 

 breakfast, but Scott was not quite so early with his 

 breakfast that morning as usual. On the evening of the 

 same day the "Limited" through train pulled us off our 

 siding and spun us back to the city, after a delightful 

 little trip indeed. This is how four of us. at least, came 

 to know there are quail in Indiana — and coons, too. 



E. Hough. 



Worcester, Mass., Nov. 16.— The Worcester Fur Com- 

 pany held a meeting this evening to arrange for their 

 annual fox hunt on Wednesday next. It was reported 

 that the score of the club this season is thirteen foxes. 

 The arrangements completed this evening indicate one 

 of the largest gatherings of the club since it was organ- 

 ized. It is now believed that Wednesday morning there 

 will be one hundred men and at least fifty dogs at the 

 start. No boys or rifles will be allowed, and ail foxes 

 shot must be brought in with their pelt on. In the eve- 

 ning the men will report at the Bay State. House in this 

 city, where a supper will be served at 7 o'clock. The 

 interest shown in the meeting indicate that it will be the 

 most enjoyable event of the season. — E. 



Lake Erie Gill, Nets.— Judge E. 0. Potter, of the 

 Ohio Fish Commission, recently commanded a secret ex- 

 pedition from Toledo, which captured over 150 gill nets 

 illegally set in Lake Erie waters. Suits have been brought 

 by some of the fishermen, who claim that the law pro- 

 hibiting gill nets is "unconstitutional because it does not 

 operate the same in all sections of the State." 



LOOK AFTER THE CRIPPLES. 



TTAVING recently returned from my fall ducking trip, 

 JUL an eviL that has long troubled me has more than ever 

 impressed me, and is a cruel wrong that, I fear, is not 

 duly considered by many, if not most, duckers; and cer- 

 tainly not by guides, as a rule, though even among guides 

 there are exceptions. The wrong is by no means of re- 

 cent date, though it has greatly increased since the advewt 

 of the much-prized breechloaders. 



Most ducks are very tenacious of life, and although 

 winged or otherwise severely wounded, will make per- 

 sistent efforts to escape; and often, quite too often, suc- 

 ceed, only to die alone or become victims to minks or 

 hawks. 



When ducks are flying lively, and we are shooting 

 right and left, it is to be expected that some will fall that 

 the boatman cannot get without active work. So rather 

 than take the necessary time to chase the cripples we are 

 apt to say, "Never mind going after that bird; 1 can kill 

 two others while you are chasing that one." 



This is where the wrong and cruelty come in, and no 

 effort or loss of needed time should be allowed to prevent 

 a thorough endeavor to secure the fleeing cripple. Better 

 lose three unharmed birds than fail to recover one that 

 has been winged or otherwise seriously wounded. 



I am particularly fond of wing-shooting while decoy- 

 ing, but I notice that in that way more cripples are made 

 than when sitting in the water, or just before alighting 

 to the decoys; hence, of late, I have generally adopted 

 the latter practice. Of course, many good shots are thus 

 lost, and fewer ducks are killed, but certainly it is more 

 humane, and in the end more satisfactory to let birds 

 pass unharmed than to wound them to a lingering death. 

 I pity the man that can heartlessly recount the particu- 

 lars of game that he has badly wounded and finally lost, 

 whether it be feather, fur or fin. 



Surely the pleasure of recalling our hunting experi- 

 ences does not consist so much in the number of birds 

 knocked down in any one day or one hunting trip, as in 

 the neat and skillful manner in which they were killed. 



I am glad that through the continued efforts of Forest 

 and Stream the bad practice of spring shooting is be- 

 coming more and more a thing of the past, and will, I 

 trust, be entirely abolished by stringent laws if neces- 

 sary. J. H. D. 



PouOHKKEPsrE, November, 1889. 



THE SOUTH CAROLINA SEASON. 



THE close season for game expired the last of October, 

 and since then several parties have been out after 

 Bob White, but no large bags are reported. Two sports- 

 men (?) from the city of Anderson went out one day last 

 week, and came back highly elated over their success. 

 One of them killed a screech owl and the other a single 

 partridge. The boys tell it on the one that got the owl 

 that he flushed a covy of birds and fired at them, and 

 killed the owl sitting on a bush away to the other side of 

 where the partridges were flying. 



Small game, which is all the kind we have here, is 

 fairly plentiful. Partridges, rabbits and squirrels are to 

 be found in sufficient numbers to make hunting them 

 interesting, but owing to an unusually heavy crop of 

 grass and weeds, hunting partridges and rabbits is more 

 difficult at present than it will be when vegetation dies 

 down. 



A few opossums are still left to entice the night hunter 

 to forego the pleasures of sleep for the time and ramble 

 around in search of them. It is wonderful how so slug- 

 gish an animal as a possum survives the nightly attacks 

 made on them by the proverbial darky and his dog, assis- 

 ted frequently by white'men and boys. 



J. S. McCully and W, T. McGregor are off on a fox 

 hunt in Abbeville county. Foxes are reported to be so 

 thick there that dogs find it difficult to run one fox for 

 running another. Mr. McCully has a young foxhound 

 bitch from best native stock that ran a' race to the kill 

 before she was six months old. She was "right there" 

 when it was caught and took hold of it as if she would 

 tear it to pieces. She is a beautiful white, black and tan, 

 well grown, and combines some of the best foxhound 

 blood in the South. 



As fox hunting is such a grand sport, why do not some 

 of Forest and Stream's numerous correspondents give 

 us some of their experience in this line? It seems as "if it 

 would interest a great number of your readers. 



Blue Rnjorc 



Denver, South Carolina. 



Vermont Deer. — The deer put out in Vermont some 

 years ago have multiplied, and the enterprising sports- 

 men concerned in the work of restoring the deer forests 

 are sanguine of sport when the time shall finally come for 

 hunting them. Two men were arrested the other day for 

 having illegally killed a deer in Chittenden; one of them, 

 Charles E. White, was fined $50 and costs, or $56.91 in 

 all; the other was acquitted. Commenting on the case, 

 the Rutland Herald reports, two sportsmen came to the 

 conclusion that illegal deer killing was profitable busi- 

 ness, "'I tell you there's a premium for killing deer, 

 not a penalty,' said sportsman number one; ' and I will 

 explain the process whereby the reward comes in. The 

 plan requires two operatives, a hunter and an informer, 

 Let the hunter shoot a deer and his friend then complain 

 of him. The penalty for killing it is $50, while the re- 

 ward to the complainant is $75. See? They divide $25 

 between them . But that isn't all of it; the deer belongs to 

 the man who killed it, and the animal is worth $15, and 

 more if as good as the one shot on Saturday. This brings 

 the income up to $40— $20 apiece. There are the costs, to 

 be sure, but they can be reduced to a small sum on a plea 

 of guilty. It is 'safe to say that the two will make over 

 $30 on a deal of this kind; but I don't believe it could be 

 tried on many times by the same men.' Unfortunately 

 the foregoing appears to be a truthful diagnosis of the 

 situation. The State law imposes a penalty of $50 for 

 killing a deer, while the Game Association offers a re- 

 ward of $75 to one giving information leading to the 

 arrest and conviction of the culprit. It is extremely 

 doubtful, however, if the foregoing scheme could be car- 

 ried into successful operation more that once or twice." 



Wild Celery. — We reprint for the benefit of an in- 

 quirer these notes sent us a few years ago by a correspon- 

 dent who had successfully planted wild celery (Vallis- 

 neria spiralis) in Big Sandy Pond, Jefferson county, New 



York: "First and above all, this plant calls for wet 

 ground — very wet ground — a pond of water, a real, gen- 

 uine, old-fashioned slough, plenty of wet muck and loam 

 with an abundance of water. If the water sets over all 

 from one to ten feet all the better. You all know what 

 kind of a pond or marsh is needed to make a first-class 

 feeding ground for ducks. I should make my order for 

 seed or bulbs for a couple of barrels or more. I would 

 place some of the seed at most or all the good places in 

 or about the marsh. I am satisfied this seed will grow 

 in almost any t'resTl water marsh. What it would do in 

 a. salt water marsh I do not know. Whenever I come 

 upon a desirable spot, I would sow a fair sprinkling of 

 seed upon it broadcast, as farmers sow wheat. I would 

 now and then plant a little of the seed, and occasionally 

 a bulb. I would do this at all the desirable places found 

 until my seed was exhausted. Everybody knows how to 

 sow seed broadcast.^ No instructions are in order as 

 (o the matter of sowing. Do it in the usual way. As 

 to planting. Have made a tin tube, the length de- 

 pending upon the depth of the water it has to work in. 

 Have a plunger made to work upon the inside of the 

 tube. Form a wad. of earth, and in the wad inclose a 

 few pods containing celery seed. Place it in the bot- 

 tom of the tube, inserting it fairly tight. Run the tube 

 down to the bottom of the water, force it into the soil 

 a trifle, and with the plunger force wad, seed and all, in- 

 to the soil below. Then let the seed take care of itself. 

 In this way I would continue my endeavors over all the 

 likely places about the pond. I would plant the bulbs 

 on the marshy ground where the water would stand, say 

 about 1 or 2ft. deep. I would plant them the same way 

 as seeds. Were I now to try again, having seen what I 

 have, and knowing what I do about the raising of this 

 plant, the above programme would be very close upon 

 what I should try to do. I think that the seeds and 

 bulbs can only be obtained in the fall, when the water is 

 at its lowest." 



New Jersey Farmers Organize.— The farmers along 

 the Passaic River in Washington Valley have organized 

 "The Farmers Game Protective Association" in self- 

 defence against the hunters — who tear down stone walls 

 to get hidden rabbits, drive quails into farmers' barn- 

 yards to shoot, and burn big forest trees to get a coon or 

 possum. Smith Chittenden organized the society, which 

 will be regularly incorporated. Sunday hunting has 

 been indulged in by visiting gunners to an unusual extent 

 this year, and the farmers complain bitterly of this. No 

 strangers will be permitted to hunt on the lands of mem- 

 bers of the Association without a written permit signed 

 by a member and good for only one day. A State mar- 

 shal will be in the employ of the farmers, and every 

 offender caught will be prosecuted to the full extent of 

 the law. — Evening Post 



St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 16. — The fourth annual coon hunt 

 of the King's Lake Club took place last Saturday night in 

 Lincoln county, this State. The hunt, although netting 

 but one coon", was thoroughly appreciated by all who 

 took part in it. The participants were E. H. Cunning- 

 ham, L. D. Dozler, Mark Taylor, C. H. Cunningham, 

 Harry Caruth, R. TJ. Leonori, Jr., J. H. Hay ward, E, C. 

 Hay ward, J. F. Perkins, Gus Shupleigh, E. W. Hayden, 

 W.'Hayden and Fred Fodde.— Unser Fritz. 



The Rutland, Vt., Fish and Game Club held its 

 annual supper at the Berwick, Rutland, last evening. 



ON TAXING GUNS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I see that my views? on taxing of guns, or rather licensing the 

 shooter, do not seem to please "Wacautah." T am sorry, very. 

 Still my views remain unchanged, and are likely to remain so if 

 the only opposition made to them is in the form of sarcasm and 

 inuendoes. I do not wish to enter a controversy with any one, 

 nor will I. I did not suppose my views would call forth an attack 

 almost entirely personal. However, I would like to call attention 

 to several statement made by "Wacautah" which will hear cor- 

 rection. He says, "It is of such a despotic, foreign nature." Does 

 lie mean the general principle of taxation, or only as it is applied 

 to guns? Are we not taxed for everything worth having, includ- 

 ing personal property ? Also our live stock and fowls ? Is it "any 

 more despotic or foreign to pay a tax on a gun than on a dog? Tf 

 so how? I fail to see. Are not "Wacautah's" ideas a little 

 "twisted ?" Tf a. dog is licensed in the interest of protection, and 

 a gun is licensed in the same cause (both being alike the means of 

 destroying the property of the common people), to protect, and 

 make good to the people their loss, wherein does the principle of 

 taxation as applied differ in the two cases? Perhaps he claims 

 that the wild game and fowl are not the property of the people in 

 the same sense as applied to the domestic birds. In this section 

 one man (with the use of snares) can with impunity rob a score of 

 gunners of a whole season of legitimate sport. We want protec- 

 tion. How can it be obtained except (hroiiEch taxation ? 



I am (like "Wacautah"! a native of New England, but do not 

 pretend, as does he, to represent that broad domaiu. I am not 

 only a native, but come from the "old Plymouth stock," was born 

 and educated here, and live here now. My views are thoroughly 

 American. I only attempt to represent a very small portion of 

 New England, to wit, Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. 

 Although I have traveled New England from end to end, and am 

 well acquainted with sportsmen all through the length and 

 breadth of it, I sneak for my home locality only. 



As to rifle shooting: Who art thou, "Wacautah" ? And where, 

 oh ! where are the scores of riflemen of whom thou speakest ? Who 

 go out into the world and decapitate the lordly grouse and cun- 

 ning quail? Have we a legion of Bogarduses or Carvers among 

 us, or has the science of rifle shooting come to be mere play? Of 

 what use are the fine-bred dogs, and the costly chokebore ham- 

 merless, when the rifle brings to bag the largest score ? I should 

 imagine from the tone of •Wacautah's" article that he was (as he 

 says) "something of a gunner." Of the hundreds of sportsmen of 

 my acquaintance, including some members of our justly cele- 

 brated Massachusetts Rifle Team, not one has the cheek to stand 

 uj) and pretend that he can successfully hunt game birds with a 

 rifle. If there are any among us, let them stand up and be 

 counted. I for one want to make their acquaintance. Around 

 here the rifle is used for targets, and occasionally squirrels. 



As for the "outrage" committed by "Cohannet's" father, "Co- 

 hannet" is old enough to appreciate it, also the fact that (appa- 

 rently) the majority of American fathers do outrageously use 

 their children in a like manner. 



If "Wacautah" is desirous of ascertaining the extent of the 

 damage done my education in rifle shooting by lack of early prac- 

 tice, when he next visits New England let him bring his rifle, 

 money and friends, and I will endeavor to accommodate all three, 

 and will prove to him that, although not a professional rifle shot, 

 still lam one of the people. I would be pleased to compare scores 

 either at target or live birds. "Wacautah" will get my address 

 from the editor of this paper. I am an enthusiast on the subject 

 of rifle and shotgun shooting for men. As to the boys, I repeat, 

 "The rifle is a dangerous weapon in the hands of a boy (except 

 when said boy is under instruction), and were the fathers of these 

 boys held responsible for the damage done by them, or subject to 

 a tax of the small sum of $1, there would be few of them ai large 

 in the fields and woods." And I deny that a boy can get more 

 sport from the rifle. Otherwise the grown up boy would not dis- 

 card the rifle for the shotgun, as he now invariably does. 



The statement made by •'Wacautah" on accidents, is so ludi- 

 crously false, that (when we consider that among boys who own 

 guns the rifle predominates in the ratio of ten to one, and accord- 

 ing to his statement "the mass of accidents we read about are 



