Sept. 18, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



to look after their cattle. They took their rifles and ex- 

 pected to bring back some big game. I cut a willow and 

 wandered down the brook for a mile or more. Here the 

 stream meandered through a grassy little meadow, and 

 the trout I caught were nothing but fingerlingB. It re- 

 minded me of some fishing I once had on the South Wil- 

 liamstown side of old Graylock. That was before I had 

 made the acquaintance of lancewood or split bamboo. I 

 had fair success until a mink splashed into the water and 

 swam past. On the homeward trip, while walking 

 through some high grass. I had the misfortune to step into 

 a big hole, and the result was a painful sprain. Getting 

 back to the cabin was the hardest work I have done for 

 many a day, and about six o'clock the rest of the party 

 came in with two deer. They had seen no elk signs and 

 thought that it would be impossible to secure any on this 

 trip. 



After supper, as we sat in front of the cabin, the head 

 of a bighorn appeared on the opposite cliff. Jack was for 

 stalking it, and then you ought to have heard the old 

 man read the riot act. He knew from practical experi- 

 ence how fast the game was disappearing, and any need- 

 less slaughter or law breading was, in his eyes, an unpar- 

 donable sin. 



Tbe following morning one of the traps was gone. I 

 was too lame to accompany the party that followed the 

 trail of the log, but before they could have marched 

 more than half a mile, I heard eight shots fired in rapid 

 succession. They brought back the hide of a silver-tip. 

 This ended tbe hunting of the expedition. Five bear 

 and two lion skins, with plenty of bear meat and veni- 

 son, was packed down to the Gunnison, and my hunt- 

 ing trip was over. Shoshone. 



MASSACHUSETTS CAME INTERESTS. 



BOSTON, Mass. Sept. 12.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 At the first meeting of the Massachusetts Fish and 

 Game Protective Association Vice Pres. Bpn.j. C. Clark 

 presided. The meeting was held at Young's Hotel, Bos- 

 ton, Thursday evening, Sept. 11. The open season on 

 woodcock, quail and partridge begins on Sept. 15. Special 

 action was taken to prevent any killing of these birds 

 before that date, and as the association has gone to a good 

 deal of expense kdI labor in restocking the State, it is 

 hoped that the birds will not be disturbed until it is law- 

 ful to hunt them, thereby giving them all the chance pos- 

 sible to grow and increase, and encourage the association 

 to continue its work of increasing our game birds. 



Letters were read from the Mayor and several promi- 

 nent citizens of Lynn, saying that if the association, when 

 it receives its next shipment of birds, would furnish them 

 a quantity of quail, pinnated grouse, sharp-tailed grouse 

 and wild turkeys, they would plant them in the public 

 park, of about 1,5IJ0 acres, in that city and provide a war- 

 den to protect them. Thi-3 the association propose to do 

 as soon as the birds can be procured. 



Large numbers of these birds will be imported and dis- 

 tributed throughout the State as soon as the proper 

 season arrives so they can be obtained. 



Wild turkeys, which years ago were found in consider- 

 able numbers in the western part of Massachusetts, but 

 which now are never seen, will be procured, as many as 

 possible, and it is hoped that in a few years they will 

 figure as one of the principal birds of the State. 



The following gentlemen were elected members: Messrs. 

 Sydney Harwood, M. W. Davidson, Holman K. Wheeler, 

 Frederick S. Hodges and Percival Manchester. 



Richard O. Harding, Sec'y. 



ADIRONDACK DEER HOUNDING, 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of Aug. 28 is an article from a Washing- 

 ton, I). C, correspondent ("A. T."), which deserves, I 

 think, more than a passing notice. It should be sus- 

 tained and approved by every conscientious sportsman in 

 the country to-day. His communication relates to the 

 reprehensible practice of water-killing deer, and ;was 

 brought out by his reading a description of deer slaugh- 

 tering by a party in the Adirondack, which appeared in 

 your issue of Aug. 7. 



"A. T.'s" protest is timely and admirable, but to my 

 thinking he does not cover all the ground. He says: 

 ■'The season for hounding deer in the Adirondacks is 

 rapidly approaching, and it is sad to think tbat men, 

 otherwise human, should feel any degree of pleasure in 

 taking the life of an animal whose legs are practically 

 tied." 



The laws of the State of New York permit the hound- 

 ing of deer in the Adirondacks during a certain season, 

 and many would-be sportsmen take advantage of it to 

 the extent of slaughtering deer, which their lack of skill 

 and patience would never bring to them in any other 

 way. Now, the method is disreputable enough when 

 pursued under the sanction of the law; but what can be 

 said of those who openly do it in the close season? What 

 stigma is too bad to apply to them? 



From July 1 to 18 last I was located at a grand hotel on 

 one of the St. Regis lakes, Franklin county, N. Y. This 

 house was not ©ne which a sportsman of ordinary means 

 would be apt to visit. Not much. But it was filled with 

 ' 'money kings" and their families from all the States (New 

 Yorkers predominating), and, Mr. Editor, though it 

 shames me to write it, there was scarcely a pleasant 

 night while I was in that house that I was not roused 

 from my sleep by the "baying of hounds" and the crack 

 of Winchesters. Was the law being violated, do you 

 ask? Well, if I wanted further proof. I found it in meet- 

 ing with the entrails of deer floating about the lakes 

 during the day when I was out. It fairly made my blood 

 boil with indignation to think of it. 



This grand hotel and the camps about the three lakes 

 represent a large part of the wealth, brains and political 

 influence of the State of New York; how easy it would be 

 for these men, if they chose, to stop this nefarious 

 business. 



But during my stay, to my knowledge, not a voice was 

 raised against it, not a protest recorded. Why? Simply 

 because I believe the wealthy are the most persistent law 

 breakers in this direction. How very quickly a poor devil 

 would be hunted down for such an infraction of the law. 



In marked contrast to this, T call to my mind a snug 

 little nook in northern New Hampshire where, on the 

 Dead Diamond, Amasa Ward has established his camp. 

 Owing to the conservative methods insisted upon by 

 Amasa, deer have rapidly increased there in the last few 

 years, and this season are more plenty than ever, No 



hounds for "Old Injun," and none would be tolerated an 

 instant on his territory. Last October I visited him for 

 the purpose of bagging my initial buck. I arrived in 

 camp at a most moppoi tune" time, the country had been 

 deluged with rain for four days', the river was" high, and 

 the deer had retreated to the most inaccessible places. 

 For six days Amasa and myself were indefatigable in our 

 efforts, but no "nine-pronged antlers" rewarded our 

 patience, and I was obliged to return without tbe much 

 sought for trophy. And yet, I had a great deal more 

 honest enthusiasm to express about that trip than I would 

 if we had hounded a buck to water every day. J. W. B. 

 Southbouo, Mas*., Sept. 8. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



/CHICAGO, Sept, 18.— Look out for Monday. It is 

 \J opening clay. Such of the chickens as have not 

 already suffered will have to suffer now. The daily 

 papers have all published their more or less glaring in- 

 consisties. The Tribune of Aug. 28 in an interview with 

 "a prominent sportsman" publishes the interesting news 

 that Indiana is the only State in the Union that has no 

 game law, and where a man can take his gun and go out 

 and shoot anything he likes to; but even this grave and 

 reverend authority falls into line to-morrow morning 

 and will have a timely article on opening day. Thus 

 history lingers with us" 



Messrs. John Gillespie, Charlie Willard and Charlie 

 Wilcox start to-night for Fox Lake for a little early air. 

 Ed Howard writes down that snipe and teal are in in 

 abundance, and they will probably have good fun. 

 Charlie Wilcox has been fretting for some time. "Game 

 laws are a nuisance," he says; "they only give the 

 early shooters a chance, and hold back a genuine sports- 

 man like me!" But he has stood it the legal limit. 



On the opening of the duck season in Wisconsin, 

 Messrs. C. B. Felton, J. O. Pierson, Ben. D:cks, 

 Lee Hamline and P. F. Stone had some of the 

 finest duck shooting ever known lately in this region. 

 This was at their club marsh at Harrison, WR, one of the 

 most wonderful duck marshes of the West. In a day and 

 a half the above gentlemen killed 827 ducks. About half 

 were teal, the rest mallard, redhead and pintail. The red- 

 heads breed on that marsh a great deal. Mr. Stowe 

 killed 71 ducks in half a day. Mr. Dicks killed 35 mallard 

 and 25 teal in his shooting. To show what the shooting 

 really was— it was not over decoys, but chiefly on fly ways 

 — I may cite the number of shots fired. Mr. Hamline 

 fired 450 shells, and bagged 88 birds. Mr. Dicks fired 400 

 shells and bagged 60 birds. Of course some few of the 

 shells were not actu illy fired at ducks. There was plen ty 

 of shooting, sure. 



The late cold and snow to the north of us is expected to 

 send down the teal this week. Ordinarily they are due 

 about the 20th or 22d on the Kankakee. They are at 

 Fox Lake now. 



Messrs. T. Benton L-eiter and Wm. Haskell were after 

 chickens near Pulaski, la., week before last. They got a 

 good many birds, but numbers of them were not well 

 grown — a commentary on the Iowa law. They report 

 quail very abundant there. 



Charlie Strawn, of Jacksonville, says there are more 

 quail this year in that region than for years past, and 

 chickens also are fairly abundant. 



John Schick, of Mt. Pulaski, 111., told me early last 

 summer that chickens were going to be abundant around 

 there. 



W. L. Shepard is lately back from Iowa where he went 

 after chickens. He says he will never go there again. 



Jo Card is back from Minnesota after chickens. He 

 says it was no good. By the way, Mr. Card has just had 

 the hard luck of losing his nicely broken dog. The cars 

 ran over him at Mak-saw-ba and broke him all up, 



Mr. John Howley and his friend Mr. Jones are back 

 from their Minnesota trip. Thev went to Ortonville and 

 report bags of 20 to 30 birds per day to_two guns, which is 

 certainly a plenty. 



Mr. Ben Holmes, mayor of Kansas City, with Karl 

 Quinnotte, Walter Hallowell and two others of that city, 

 were out after chickens near Council Grove. Kansas, and 

 they report rattling good shooting. So says a recent 

 letter. 



No reports of the legal Illinois crop of chickens are, of 

 course, at this time obtainable. 



A singular and interesting bit of news is the fact that a 

 flock of 50 wild pigeons was seen in the Kankakee timber 

 last week. If really protected, these birds would soon 

 become plentiful again. Lake George Clubiiad a crate of 

 wild pigeons last week, but did not shoot them at the 

 trap. E. Hough. 



BOSTON GUNS AND RODS. 



STILL the sportsmen are returning from their vacation 

 trips and few days' outing. The rod and gun are be- 

 coming more and more the essentials of such trips. The 

 camera is much desired, but the imperfections of the 

 best "snap shot" outfits of the present day are so glaring 

 tbat one is discouraged after one or two trials. A Boston 

 merchant returned recently from an outing with a 

 Kodak. He had industriously and carefully— as he 

 thought— made his hundred exposures and was expect- 

 ing great pleasure from his pictures. But the returns 

 from the development were that not a single negative 

 was made. The invention of an instantaneous camera 

 that shall work even in cloudy weather and give fair 

 results with a lens stopped down to sharpness is yet to be 

 made, much as it is desired at the present time. Hence 

 the sportsman must continue to be contented with rod 

 and gun, unless he is willing to go to all the bother of a 

 camera that sets up on a tripod, and to give time to mak- 

 ing his exposures, as well as a great deal of actual skill 

 and thought to the details of the work. 



Mr. Ned Stearns, of the Boston Herald editorial staff, 

 has lately returned from a vacation at Keasar's Falls, in 

 Maine, lie reports the pickerel fishing excellent below 

 the falls, with good bass fishing in the vicinity. Par- 

 tridges are plenty, but wild. They are closely hunted, 

 for nearly every boy in the neighborhood has a gun and 

 is a pretty fair shot. One needs a good dog to hunt 

 grouse in that part of Maine, and a spaniel that will "put 

 them up" and bark is preferred by the natives. Mr. 

 Stearns was out one day with a mongrel dog that was 

 good, and with a result of three partridges to his gun, 



The members of the Inglewood Club, with its exten- 

 sive preserves of fish and game in New BrunBwick, are 



delighted with what they have got, so far as they have 

 visited their owu camps. Mr. H. P. Bridgham, the India 

 street tobacco merchant, is at the club's preserves at the 

 present time, and he writes glowing letters of fish and 

 game. Mr. Samuel Shaw, of the Murdock Parlor Grate 

 Co,, has lately returned from a visit to the camps of the 

 club. He is more pleased than ever with the prospects of 

 pleasure in that region. Mr. Cobb, of Cobb & Easter- 

 brook, well known brokers in Boston, has also just re- 

 turned from a visit to the home of the club. Andrew S. 

 Marsh, a commission merchant of 20 Lincoln street, has 

 returned from quite an extended trip over the grounds of 

 the club. He found the prospects of game, in the legal 

 season, very good, with fishing good. 



If is reported, on good authority, that Mr. Bayard 

 Thayer, of Lancaster, Mass., and having an office in 

 Boston, is having rare sport at his camps on Richardson 

 Lake in Maine. Mr. Thayer, it will be remembered by 

 those familiar with that region, purchased last year the 

 celebrated Birch Lodge, at the head of the lake, once oc- 

 cupied by the defaulter Whittier. He went over to the 

 Cranberry Bog the other day, and came across an old bear 

 and a cub He succeeded in capturing the cub, and the 

 wonder is that the enraged old bear did not capture the 

 man; but he escaped. The next day, with guides, he 

 went over to the scene of the struggle and seta trap. At 

 last accounts no bear had been taken, however. Another 

 gentleman hunting partridges in that section came upon 

 a bear in the old logging road that he was following up. 

 He had nothing but small shot in his gun, and was rather 

 glad than otherwise to see the old bear make off. 



The daily papers give an account of the appearing of a 

 giant moose in tbe streets of the village of Vanceboro, on 

 the Maine Central Railroad, the other day. They further 

 state that a citizen of that town seized his gun and shot 

 the moose dead. He was promptly prosecuted by the 

 game wardens, but he paid his fine of $100 cheerfully, 

 only allowing as little cost as possible to be made, and 

 then was heard to say that he was willing to shoot an- 

 other as fine a moose at that price. This story is doubt- 

 less untrue, in part at least, for in the first place the 

 moose would be confiscated by the State, and would not 

 be the property of the hunter at all, though he had paid 

 the fine. 



Mr. James L. Raybould, salesman for Hyde & Wheeler, 

 41 North Market street, Boston, has just returned from a 

 vacation of four or five weeks in the home of his younger 

 days in the northern part of New York. He was within 

 a few miles of the Adirondack woods, and believes that 

 he found fish and game more plenty than he would have 

 done had he gone into the wilderness proper. He says 

 that the running of railroad trains into the woods is mak- 

 ing it too easy for hunters and fishermen to get there, 

 and that the fish and game cannot long stand up against 

 such invasion. His best record was thirty-eight trout in 

 one day. The partridge shooting he found good. The 

 deer are plenty. " Special, 



HINTS BY AN OLD-TIMER. 



JERSEYVILLE, III— Editor Forest and Stream: Is 

 it or is it not a natural desire of the shooting fra- 

 ternity in general, when they read their favorite sporting 

 paper and glean from its well-filled pages the interesting 

 articles written by its many able correspondents, to long 

 to have their say also? I know that is the way I feel, and 

 I doubt not that there are many who experience the same 

 desire, especially those who, like myself, have handled 

 the gun and dog for forty years. 



Perhaps we cannot write so well, our language may not 

 be as classical, our sentences not as rounded nor as pleas- 

 ing to the ear as those of our more gifted brethren; but 

 our ardor and enthusiasm are as great, if not greater, than 

 some of those who have had fewer opportunities and con- 

 sequently less experience than we have had. We concede 

 to them all bonor in the literary line; but when the cob- 

 webs are brushed from the brain of an old-timer by one 

 of the many articles he reads, the latent fires are again 

 kindled, memory comes rushing along with hundreds of 

 incidenis of hunt and camp, then he concedes to the ris- 

 ing generation nothing. For his knowledge has been 

 gained by experience, not by theory, and he longs to 

 appeal to "his friend," the paper, to correct some of the 

 errors he sees, but is deterred from so doing by the fear 

 of being called an old fogy. Hence he says nothing, but 

 as he reads he separates the facts from the theory and 

 watches the game as it is brought down or joins in the 

 laugh at the camp-fire. Old age may compel him to 

 remain at home, but I doubt if old age will ever be able 

 to blot from his memory the bright scenes of the past. 



Many of these articles are written on grounds familiar 

 to some of us old-timers, and as we read we see many 

 famdiar objects, and in imagination, at least, tramp the 

 fields or lay low in the blind waiting for a shot. 



"That reminds me." I consider Henry Kleinman's 

 article on duck shooting, published in this paper, to be 

 facts from end to end. As I read them I could almost 

 hear the crack of the gun, if I couldn't smell the powder; 

 and he hits the nail on the head when he says, "Keep 

 still." And yet I do not know that an amateur could 

 gain much information by reading his articles; it is only 

 the old hand at the business who understands them. 



I would like to add to his articles some advice for young 

 hunters who may wish to shoot ducks in the timber when 

 the water will permit you to wade. 



Dress as near the color of the surroundings as possible, 

 better be too light than too dark. 



Select a suitable spot near some old snag without a top 

 if possible, and take your place close to it and keep still, 

 as the ducks are unable to distinguish between a station- 

 arv man and a stump. 



A few years ago a friend and I were in the timber after 

 mallards; we found a good place for the decoys and an 

 old snag covered with vines where we could stand and 

 shoot. The clay was bright and clear, so that the decoys 

 showed to good advantage. Flock after flock of ducks 

 came for the decoys, almost within shot, and would then 

 sheer off. This continued for about an hour, when I 

 knew something was wrong. I then looked at my friend's 

 gun, and found what I believed to be the cause, and asked 

 him to go to a log that lay in a dense shade, about fifty 

 yards away and sit down. Soarcely had he done so when 

 a small bunch came nicely to the decoys, and the mystery 

 was solved. It was the reflection of the sun from his gun. 

 The best remedy I know of for this is to give the barrels 

 a good coat of shellac. This prevents not only the glitter, 

 but the rusting of the barrels as well, for the shellac is 

 impervious to water, After the season is over you can 



