394 



[Dec. 4, 1890. 



WORCESTER'S GREAT FUR HUNT. 



WORCESTER, Mass.— Thursday, Nov. 20, the day 

 selected for the annual hunt of the Worcester 

 Fur Co. , was a ' 'roarer." It was a great day for wind. It 

 was a great day for foxes, a great day for the Worcester 

 Fur Co., and a Veritable "corker" for Uncle Nathan Har- 

 rington, who had the honor of downing the first and 

 handsomest fox of the day. In fact, it was a red letter as 

 well as a red-nosed day for about every one who partici- 

 pated in the hunt, 



A preliminary meeting was held at the Bay State House 

 the evening before, at which the final details of arrange- 

 ment were perfected. The meet was at the Hay ward 

 faxtn, about three miles east of the city, as usual, and 7 

 A . M. was the hour. 



President Kinney, of the Fur Co., organized the hunt, 

 sending the bands of hunters to the different hills on their 

 arrival at the meeting place. 



When the barges which took down most of the out-of- 

 town hunters arrived, the farmyard was completely filled 

 with private teams. A small army of closely-muffled 

 hunters scurried about anxious to be given a location, 

 while some of the more impatient hounds gave vent to 

 their pent up thirst for fox blood in prolonged howls. 

 Everything w r as animation, the cold north wind keeping 

 horses and men both prancing in a frantic endeavor to 

 keep from freezing to death. 



About seventy-five men and fifty hounds were finally 

 assembled and the start was made. The hunt was divided 

 to cover as much ground as possible and keep the driving 

 within hearing of a central point. 



Webster Thayer with two hounds went to Burncoat 

 Plain where his black dog Towser soon had a fox up. He 

 ran him for about an hour, taking him in sight, but just 

 out of reach of Judge Clark of Willimantic. Mr. Nor- 

 cross of Monson also got a good look at him, but he was 

 out of gunshot. The red finally bothered the dog on the 

 ledges, and before he could straighten the trail out the 

 scent was too cold to follow. The fox, however, came to 

 grief. Paul Wheeler of Rutland occupied a stand only a 

 few rods from the meeting point, where he found a shel- 

 tered corner in the stone wall. Paul had been holding 

 quite a reception all the morning, and during a lull and 

 while Dick Luther was making a trip to the city for the 

 purpose of replenishing the supply of fuel, a fox appeared 

 and Paul cooly tumbled him over. No dogs came to him, 

 but it was thought to be the one Towser had been driving. 



Will Brigham with a party from West Boylston put 

 out their dogs near the Diamond hedges back of Old Pot, 

 and soon had three foxes going at a lively pace. Mr. 

 Brigham killed one, and Mr. Ball and Mr. JSewton each 

 had a shot at the others but failed to stop them. 



John M. White, of Millbury, the man who gets and 

 makes more fun at a fox hunt than any other man on 

 earth, took his pack to Straw Hollow, putting them out 

 near the cider mill. They soon had two foxes up, both 

 taking a swing north toward Rocky Pond, out of hearing. 

 John and his party sat around a few hours, then kindled 

 a bonfire and camped down beside it to wait for a return 

 of the dogs, who came straggling along toward night. 

 John for once was out of the hunt, his party hearing very 

 little driving. 



A. M. French put in his dogs at Rocky Pond. They 

 started a fox, made a few long turns and about 9:30 Mr. 

 French killed him. 



Uncle Nathan Harrington and W. R. Dean went to 

 Sewall's Hill, as did John R. Thayer. They put out their 

 dogs near the Harlow place, and in a few minutes 

 Thayer's Guess and Leap, with Uncle Nathan's flyer, 

 Slippery Sal, took up a fox, which made to the westward. 



The dogs soon came into hearing again, when it was 

 discovered that Guess now had a separate fox. This one 

 swung over on to East Ridge, the other going south and 

 passing within 20 rods of Uncle Nathan. 



About this time Dean's Tramp and Bat were to be 

 heard driving on the east side of Sewall Hill, and Uncle 

 Nathan lit out for his favorite stand on the Rocky Pas- 

 ture, to guard the crossing by the big chestnut. 



By this time Charlie Crompton, with Will and Allie 

 Perry, constituting the "20-bore party," had arrived and 

 taken up positions. A little further north, back of the 

 Shoemaker, were President Kinney, Capt. David Earle, 

 M. D. Gilman, C. B. Hedden, George Newton and a half- 

 dozen others. I was there myself, as you will see. 



The dogs soon turned toward Rice's, and every one was 

 on the lookout. Uncle Nathan was the lucky one, how- 

 ever, and bowled him over; what a shout went up when 

 the boys saw that he had stopped him. You would never 

 have dreamed (seeing Uncle Nathan tip-toe up to that fox 

 ready to give him another barrel if he showed signs of 

 getting up) that his seventy-sixth birthday was almost 

 here. 



E. T. Whitaker and A. C. White, with Whitaker's dog 

 Tilden, went to the north end of East Ridge but did not 

 start a fox. I went with them (teamster), came back to 

 the shoemaker's to put up the horse, and started down the 

 road to bunt up somebody to talk to. I am not much of 

 a fox hunter, take me alone. I soon came across Cyrus 

 Holden, and together we set out to find a place where we 

 could be in the sun and out of the wind, if possible. 



We soon found a place that offered partial protection 

 from the wind, and as we hopped about the road, per- 

 fectly "numb" from the cold, we heard a pack driving to 

 the west of us in the sprouts but nearly out of hearing. 

 Soon we heard a dog sing out once or twice a little nearer 

 than the main pack, but just audible in the high wind. 

 All at once a fox jumped into the road about two rods 

 from us and started down the road. I spoke to him as he 

 came along, but he didn't stop. Of course he was a 

 strange fox to me and I didn't know whether he was 

 "red fox," or "dog fox," or just plain "Mr. Fox." so I just 

 sung out at random, but he kept right on, and as quick as 

 J could I put on to him, but I was so clumsy that he got 

 about seven rods away before I could get my gun up. I 

 hit him from the same direction that his tail did, but only 

 skewed him around a little. Cyrus gave him a gun as be 

 went into the brush. 



In about five minutes Thayer's Guess came upon the 

 trail, but was bothered in the road, and by the time we 

 got him on right the fox had been gone ten minutes. We 

 followed Guess down through the sprouts, where we met 

 Whittaker and put his dog on. Following after them 

 we soon came to the burrow, where both dogs were in 

 out of sight. So I'd got him, you see, right where I 

 want him. It was lucky I didn't kill him, for you had 

 to show them up at night with pelts on, and" I never 



could have carried that tremendous big dog fox around 

 all day. Will, Cyrus and I went back to our old stand, 

 lit our pipes and waited for the next one. 



Soon John R. Thayer came along muffled a la Johnnie 

 Slocum. We told him about our killing the fox ahead 

 of Guess, which pleased him mightily; but when we ex- 

 plained where he was John shook us. Just now another 

 pack came into hearing, and John dusted for the ledge 

 just southeast of the shoemaker's, where M. D. Gilman 

 had been since daylight and just left. Roraback, of 

 Chester, stood there all day a year ago. The fox made a 

 turn or two down toward the pines, where some one shot 

 at him. 



Charlie Howe, of Milford, had a stand behind a sapling 

 pine and saw the fox coming straight to him, but when 

 about twelve rods off another party saw him and stood 

 up to get a good look at him, which caused the fox to 

 change his course. Perhaps Charlie wasn't hot when he 

 inquired of that man as to his reasons for standing, etc. 

 Later on Will Perry came across the party and told him 

 confidentially that Howe was the one who scared the fox 

 and that he would have killed him easy if Howe had kept 

 out of sight, which he firmly believes. 



After being shot at the fox went east and crossed the 

 ledge John R. was watching. He brought him down 

 with the first barrel, but seeing signs of life gave him the 

 second. 



Tilden, Leap, Guess, Bat and Fannie were driving him, 

 and lively music they bad been making for a few 

 moments. We all gathered around and congratulated 

 the Senator, who remarked that this was a great year for 

 the Democrats anyway. 



By this time it was noon, and the only chance to start 

 another fox was to jump one, so we started for a likely 

 looking piece of sprouts a mile or more to the north. 

 There were about a dozen or fifteen men and half as many 

 dogs. Leaving the road we struck out for the ledges and 

 had not got ten rods into the woods when Tilden winded 

 a fox and sung out. Leap and Bat circled toward him 

 and struck the scent, and in a moment the entire pack 

 were off and such driving as we heard for the next half 

 hour would make a successful day's hunt. Around and 

 round they went, the dogs in full cry, running like the 

 wind, for they were so close up that they carried the 

 scent in the wind and ran with heads up. 



The fox was heard or seen by three men, yet no one 

 got a shot at him, the sprouts were so thick. Leaps and 

 Bits led the pack and a half hour's exercise ahead of 

 them satisfied the red and he went in. 



Not starting another we turned back to the shoemaker's 

 which had been the center of the hunt all day. Gradually 

 the different parties came along till about 3 o'clock all 

 started for home, but had not gone a half mile when a 

 couple of dogs took a fox across the road right in front of 

 the party and the dogs were all thrown out and men 

 scrambled for crossings and a new hunt was going in a 

 minute. No one got a crack at him, however, though he 

 played around East Ridge for an hour, and at dark the 

 dogs were out of hearing over Rawson Hill and were left 

 driving, 



At 7 P. M. came the supper at the Bay State, which 

 though not quite up to scratch, was relished by those who 

 had been out all day. Mr. Kinney presided. Congress- 

 man J. H. Walker, a veteran fox hunter, spoke at some 

 length, telling some very amusing incidents of his fox 

 hunting with Uncle Nathan. All the successful hunters 

 of the day were called on and gave their experience 

 during the day's hunt. The post-prandials are not long, 

 as every one is known to be tired from the long day's 

 hunt, and at 11 P. M, the gathering broke up. The Wor- 

 cester Fur Co. may well congratulate themselves on the 

 success of this year's hunt. 



The day was one of the worst imaginable, a cold north- 

 west wind blowing all day, but the record of 5 foxes 

 killed and shown at the supper, pelts on, shows that we 

 have a good supply of foxes. A number of prominent 

 business men were out for their first fox hunt, and had the 

 day been calm they could have heard driving nearly all 

 day. As it was some of them heard scarcely a bark, and 

 probably did not carry home a very pleasant impression 

 of the sport. 



Another hunt will be held later in the season, on snow, 

 when we hope that the success of this hunt will draw 

 more hunters from out of town. Hal. 



DEER IN MICHIGAN. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



F. S. Campbell and myself have returned from our 

 annual hunt in the northern peninsula of Michigan. We 

 Avere accompanied by Jay Campbell, of Janesville, Wis. 

 We killed only six deer and but very few partridge. 

 Deer were uncommonly wild, but the lumbermen and 

 residents there say the deer were more plenty than they 

 have been in several years past. There were many- 

 wolves, and that may account for the deer being so wild. 

 We had a heavy fall of snow during the last ten days of 

 the hunt, and some cold weather, the thermometer indi- 

 cating at one time 2° above zero. 



When the snow first came we contemplated a good 

 time, but contrary to expectation and experience no 

 amount of cautious trailing would put us within rifle 

 range of deer. The snow showed the wolves were trail- 

 ing also. 



The resident hunters accounted for the scarcity of 

 partridge as follows: Last winter there was a heavy 

 fall of light snow, and the weather being cold the part- 

 ridge, in accordance with their habit, took shelter in the 

 snow; then it suddenly became warm with a slight rain, 

 so as to soften the surface of the snow, and then sud- 

 denly froze, forming a crust, confining these birds until 

 they perished with starvation. 



We killed one three-year-old buck singularly marked. 

 One of its antlers had four points, the other antler was 

 simply a spike. A company of hunters near our camp 

 killed a spotted four-yeai--old buck. It face and cheeks 

 were mottled. The spots were white, ranging in size 

 from a quarter of a dollar to the size of the palm of the 

 hand. It was the first spotted grown deer I ever saw. 



I talked with an old resident hunter there, and his 

 theory in regard to the cause of the spots was that the 

 deer had been attacked by wolves and its bide lacerated, 

 and when the wounds healed the hair came in white, as 

 we sometimes see in horses where they have been galled 

 by the harness or packs. He said he had seen several 

 deer thus marked. 



If any of your patrons should go into the Northern 



Peninsula by way of Metropolitan, I recommend they 

 call on Swan Anderson, who keeps a livery stable and 

 hotel. His charges are reasonable, and he and his good 

 lady are very attentive for the comfort of their guests. 

 It is but just that I mention the names of Peter McCrim- 

 mon, foreman of Camp 8, of the Ford River Lumber Co., 

 and Mr, McGregor, their general superintendent. That 

 company are fortunate in having the services of those 

 men. In short, that company show much common sense 

 in the management of their affairs, at least that part of 

 it which fell under our observation. It treats its em- 

 ployes well, gives them good quarters and an excellent 

 table, thus securing No. 1 men, H. Lorino. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, 111., Nov. 28.— Thanksgiving Day was very 

 generally celebrated by the devotees of the trap iii 

 this city, as will duly appear by scores pubbshed elsewhere. 

 Garfield Club, on the west side, held an all-day shoot at 

 live birds and inanimates, and Excelsior Club, of Morgan 

 Park suburb, also had a full field day. The recherche 

 Washington Park club shot live birds all day. Grand 

 Calumet Heights Club shot inanimates, about thirty 

 members being down. At Watson's Park at Burnside, 

 sweep shooting at live birds was kept up all day with two 

 dozen or so entries. By "live birds" turkeys are not 

 meant, though long ere nightfall the birds may have 

 seemed as large as turkeys to some of the faithful. The 

 lower clubs, like Cumberland, Mak-saw-ba and English 

 Lake, had small attendances. The results are not yet in 

 from the field shooters, of whom very many departed on 

 the great fall holiday for widely scattered localities here- 

 about. Beyond doubt the enjoyment of the day was 

 general and hearty. The weather in this region was cool, 

 but pleasant, and it was a shooting day. 



The night before Thanksgiving day was sharp and 

 cold, and apparently there has been a cold storm above 

 us, for all that night there were hurrying hosts of wild- 

 fowl passing down over this city, including a good many 

 geese. The big lake has been full of bluebills off Twenty- 

 second street and lower down. To-day reports come in 

 from the lower marshes that the game is in. It is very 

 probable that within the next fortnight we shall have 

 the best shooting of the fall so far, and probably, too, the 

 closing up of all the duck shooting. We hear reports 

 that it is to be a very hard winter, also that it is going to 

 be a very open winter. You take your choice. But at 

 any rate the usual time for serieus weather is now nearly 

 upon us. 



The Tolleston marsh should be having good shooting 

 now, for a time at least. The trouble with that marsh is 

 that this summer when the marsh was all dried up the 

 cattle got over it and ruined most of the natural feed. 

 The club built its dam and has lately had a good stage of 

 water, but not very good feed, so the ducks have not staid 

 on that marsh so well as usual. At least, so goes the 

 story. 



Mr. McFarland, of the Hennepin Club, tells me to-day 

 that he has had very fair shooting down at that plucky 

 and lucky little organization's headquarters, on the 

 Illinois, within the last few weeks. Just below Hennepin, 

 on the old standby, Senachwine Lake, the shooting has 

 been very good , and of late there has been a little exodus 

 of duck hunters for that point, partly, perhaps, excited by 

 one or two good bags made there two or three weeks ago. 

 Last week I mentioned that Dick Turtle had had good 

 luck on Senachwine. I saw Dick to-day, and he told me 

 that in two days he bagged 147 ducks, mostly bluebills, 

 besides 13 jacksnipe. This bag requires very special men- 

 tion, for nearly all the shooting was done with a 16-gauge 

 gun, and much of the time with No. 9 shot. Dick says 

 he thought he would use the fine shot on cripples, but 

 when he saw how he could knock down the bluebills at 

 30 and 35yds. with the No. 9 shot he kept on using them 

 for quite a while. The ducks were in then on Senachwine 

 in goodly numbers, and Mr. Turtle sent 15 telegrams up 

 to friends, but not one came down. That's where they 

 missed it. Since then Mr. Turtle has been down at Water 

 Valley on the Kankakee, that was last Saturday, but he 

 only got 5 mallards. He says he counted 16 hunters who 

 got off the train at Shell y, and 7 at Water Valley, a mile 

 further on. 



So far, the Illinois River country has had the best of it. 

 Mr. Benton Leiter and Mr. W. H. Haskell have bought 1 ,000 

 acres near Chilicothe, including the famoxis rice marsh 

 known as the "Rice Lake," and will hold entire posses- 

 sion of it after this fall, much to the discomfiture of local 

 shooters. These gentlemen were down trying their new 

 grounds a whirl or two about a week ago." It was quiet 

 weather and the birds were not working much, but the 

 two guns in two days bagged 80 splendid mallards. Chili- 

 cothe way is where Fred Kimble and his old field partner 

 Long used to crimp the mallards. It is naturally a great 

 duck country. Abe Kleinman has got his eye on a piece 

 of marsh somewhere down that way, but he won't tell 

 where it is. 



Mr. Geo. T. Farmer is the only Cumberland man I have 

 seen lately who has been down on that marsh. On last 

 Saturday and Monday he knocked down 30 mallards, over 

 at the east end of South Island, between the two ditches. 

 That is right near where I had a splendid half-day's shoot- 

 ing a year or so ago, with Alf. Dodd, the Cumberland 

 pusher. By the way, Alf. has long since quit pushing, 

 and is now at work for Charlie Gammon, here in this big 

 and bu«y city, or was a little while ago. A change from 

 his old life on the edge of the duck marsh. 



Another change of that sort has happened. The Mak- 

 saw-ba Club has lost its old and excellent stewart, Ira 

 Pease, who this week retires from the position he has so 

 long and ably filled, and goes out into Iowa to superin- 

 tend Mr. T. Benton Leiter's big farm. Mr. Leiter is a 

 member of Mak-saw-ba Club, and he saw that Ira Pease 

 was a manager of more than ordinary ability. Mr. and 

 Mrs. Pease therefore go to other fields, more's the pity for 

 the club, and Sam Austin, late keeper of the Pittsburgh 

 club, near neighbor to Mak-saw-ba, will take the vacant 

 plack. 



Ira Pease is in town to-day, and he tells the boys that 

 just before leaving the grounds to come up he saw large 

 numbers of new ducks circling in over the marsh. There 

 will probably be Some parties going down. Lately the 

 boys have not done much shooting at that club. A few 

 days ago Roll Organ got eight quail and six rabbits, and 

 Haskell abotit the same one day, and a few others of the 

 members also prowled around in the woods and got a few 

 birds and cottontails, but no hard shooting had been done. 



