APBiL 33, 1891. J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



267 



with wild beasts, wheu such auimal life was almost ex- 

 terminated there sixty or seventy-five years ago. 



Between the Mongaup and Neversink rivers, with 

 Thompson towjiship on the north, and Deerpark, Orange 

 county, for its eonthem boundary, lies the township of 

 Forest burgh. It is a natural game preserve, where thri^^e 

 in rela.tive abundance deer, two varieties of black bears, 

 ' 'ho^-backs'" and "racers," the latter occasionally at- 

 taining a weight of seven or even eight htmdred pounds. 

 Foxes, lynxes and wild cats prey upon two kind of hares 

 or rabbits as popularly called. 



The streams team with trout, the numerous ponds with 

 pickerel, perch, eels, etc., while muskrals, mink and 

 otter are frequent near the water, the latter sometimes 

 attaining a weight of fifty pounds. Here also resort 

 numerous water-fowl, including heron, cranes, geese, 

 ducks and loons. One or more pairs of the latter (great 

 northern divers) haunt every considerable pond to the 

 terror of the camper-out unfamiliar with their weird 

 night cries. 



Within recent years the foxes have so multiplied that 

 as their tracts in the snow reveal, the woods are fairly 

 overrun with them, and the word is that they are exter- 

 minating the gr.ay rabbits. Apparently the large white 

 rabbits are too much for reynard, since he passes over 

 their trails with indifference, but meeting the trail of a 

 gray rabbit he follows it up. Sometimes the victim is 

 caught napping on the lee of a bush or boulder, or allows 

 himself to be entrapped in the hollow end of a rotten log. 

 The white rabbit is both swift and alert; he lies on the 

 slopes, and when pursued scuds down into the laurel 

 swamps. If a dog be in his wake he circles about wildly 

 and is easily shot. 



Two years ago grouse were plentiful, but for some rea- 

 son their scarcity was remarked last winter. The foxes 

 are charged with being their wholesale destroyers during 

 the nesting season; doubtless the foxes do their share, but 

 two mild winters in succession had the effect of multiply- 

 ing the number of rodents and snakes, and grouse nest on 

 the ground. Inference is easy. 



This between-rivers wilderness is a favorite retreat for 

 hunted game from all quarters. Bear and deer frequently 

 cross the Delaware to the New York side, a large pro- 

 portion of them find their way into the region lying 

 between the Neversink and Mongaup and remain there. 



The bears of Forestburgh are not easily brought to bag. 

 In the first place they are excessively timid. Ttiey are 

 not hunted with much success until snow falls, after 

 which they hole up for winter or confine their move- 

 ments to the center of some almost impenetrable swale, 

 whenca they are not easily expelled. In case a routed 

 bear persists in the fatal desh-e to return to its quarters 

 he soon falls a victim, provided the hunter understands 

 his business. One of the best hunters in Forestburgh, 

 after routing a "racer," pursued the quarry for three 

 days and gave up, his nearest approach being at the out- 

 set. 



The slaughter of deer by hounding them in the deep 

 snow, especially when the rivers are frozen over, is a thing 

 of the past in Forestburgh. That clause of the New York 

 game laws which closes the season for deer hunting on 

 November 1 prevents the cruel practice. The law is a 

 great mercy to the deer, and is generally satisfactory to 

 sportsmen, "but the backwoods folk who were accustomed 

 to fresh venison throughout the wmter feel differently. 



A short time ago a party from Port Jervis spent a day 

 in Forestburgh searching for bear tracks. They were ac- 

 companied by "Lu" Boyd, who now rejoices in the title 

 of ''Chief Game Keeper of Hart wood Pai-k." Lu had his 

 hound in leash. A light snow had faUen during the pre- 

 ceding night, and the party crossed the trails of five deer, 

 two of which they saw standing within easy rifle range, 

 while the dog was yelping and plunging to get after 

 them. 



"Act as if they know the law is on," said Boyd. "By 

 hang! if 1 were alone," he muttered. Even the lawyer 

 had to struggle against temptation. By the way those 

 Jersey nimrods who invaded Hartwood Park on or 

 about Thanksgiving, capturing a deer or two, will even- 

 tually pay well for their venison. The sheriff of Sullivan 

 county has in hand certain papers, the service of which it 

 will be hard to evade. 



The popular notion that the deer flies terror-stricken 

 before the hounds is a misconception, at least as regards 

 the deer of this region. "By hang!" declares Boyd, "I've 

 seen 'em fairly play with the dog." However that 

 may be, they do not seem to be much afraid when fol- 

 lowed by a dog. The hound is a rather stupid fellow and 

 goes baying and floundering with nose down, stumbling 

 into all sorts of tangles and has to push his way through 

 the low scrub. A pursued deer passes over all these ob- 

 stacles without difficulty, and sometimes he will wait 

 until the dog approaches within a few rods, then bound 

 lightly away. 



If the hound catches a glimpse of the quarry and at- 

 temps to follow by sight he is soon hopelessly left behind. 

 Frequently the scent is lost at the same time, and the 

 humLIiated canine has to face the anger of his disgusted 

 master. A good many dogs have died young in the wilds 

 of Forestburgh for failing to stay by the game. 



When the dog cannot be thrown off in this way, the For- 

 estburgh deer proceed to play a trump by which, if not 

 shot down on the runways, he usually secures the win- 

 ning trick. He turns in the direction of one or the other 

 river and crosses the Mongaup into lumberland or the 

 Neversink toward Mamakating. After a sojourn of a 

 few days he returns. 



It is easy to start a deer in Forestbm-gh but it generally 

 requu-es "head work" to effect a cajjture, and each one 

 slain represents, on an average, a deal of toil and wood- 

 land science as well. The man who does the killing may 

 not be in it. Yet those stationed on the runways have 

 need for quick eyes and must be ready for a snap shot. 

 When the man who has been doing the hard work is met 

 with the solemn assurance that nothing has passed it is 

 exasperating. On the other hand it is extremely mortify- 

 ing when the man who was relied upon to do the killing 

 is forced to admit that a stag just went by without being 

 seen by him. It hajspens so often enough. 



Within recent years a species of animals of foreign 

 origin and fearful ferocity have taken up their quarters 

 in Forestburgh. These are the descendants of the Black 

 Forest boars that a few years since escaped from the 

 Plock estate on the side of the Shawangunk Mountains 

 near Port Jers^is. The known presence of a genuine 

 mountain cat could hardly make the mere deer slayer 

 more uncomfortable in Forestburgh than doee the fact 



that "wild hogs" are prowling around. The animals 

 whose ancestors the Ccesars were wont to chase in the 

 forests of lilyria, are reputed no less dangerous than the 

 mountain lion. 



The boars of Forestburgh, however, have thus far 

 proved excessively shy, Last November a sow weighing 

 two hundred pounds was shot on the margin of a big 

 swale into which the numerous drove to which she be- 

 longed plunged immediately afterward. Food is plentiful 

 at present, but doubtless when their numbers press on the 

 margin of subsistence their native savagery will reveal 

 itself, for these creatures have come to stay. 



PEOPLE AND THINGS. 



LET us stop an instant in the middle of these tales of 

 sport and adventure, tales of hotel life and of the 

 lonely camp-fire, aJid talk about the people that we meet. 

 "The noblest study of mankind is a man" is a quotation 

 as trite as it is true, and the traveler or sportsman who 

 fails to study the specimen of humanity with whom he 

 comes in contact loses some of the profit and much of the 

 pleasure of life. 



I have been going through a portion of the country 

 where the stranger is seldom seen, where customs are 

 quaint and curious, where the people know little or 

 nothing of the great outside world, 



"Where every prospect^leases, 

 Aad only man is vile.'" 



One evening I stopped at a little mountain settlement 

 and put up my faithful Rosinante at the only farmhouse 

 in the neighborhood where a poor wayfarer could look 

 for accommodations. The napkinless board , the fat baeon, 

 and the half dozen children that clambered over the table 

 took away my appetite and after supper I "took in" the 

 dance, the only amusement that the place afforded, The 

 hall was rough and the crowd rougher, but there was en- 

 joyment in the scene. In one corner of the hall there 

 was a box fenced off and this I was informed was the 

 "baby bin." Its use was subsequently discovered. Soon 

 the people began to arrive. The counti-y, for miles up 

 and down the A'alley, turned out en masse. There were 

 women in calico, men in overalls and blue flannel shirts, 

 babes in short di-esses and babes in long dresses, and 

 "kids," not boys and girls, of both sexes, all ages and 

 every condition of servitude. The floor of the baby bin 

 was rapidly covered with shawls and coats, and as the 

 little tots became sleepy they were unceremoniously 

 tossed within the inclosure to sleep until the revels were 

 over. 



The bishop entered and there was silence for an instant 

 while he implored the divine blessing upon the revels. 

 Then the accordeons screeched and the fiddles shrieked 

 and one barbarian yelled, "Come on Susan, let's raise 

 hell," and they raised it literally. I wondered whence 

 the whisky came, as there was no saloon in the settle- 

 ment, but all the men were gloriously full, and the little 

 boys stole the bottles and soon were in a more maudlin 

 state of intoxication than were tlieir elders. I afterward 

 ascertained that a woman, near the bridge, pm'chased a 

 barrel of $1.25 whisky just before Christmas, and her 

 profits, on Feb. 1, amounted to $600 and the liquor was 

 not half consumed. That was great whisky. An old 

 Frenchman near by had inflammatory rheumatism and 

 determined to take an alcohol sweat. He got a quart of 

 the spirits, put it under his chau, wrapped blankets about 

 him and applied the match, but the fluid would not ignite. 

 Then his wife put in a shovel of live coals. They sizzled 

 and went out. Frenchy lost patience, 



"Marie, Marie, tak out de co-als! Ah'll trink de 

 stuff." 



The dance went on, hour after hour, quadrille follow- 

 ing quadrille in monotonous succession. When all the 

 men were intoxicated or played out the bishop returned 

 thanks and the party broke up. 



The next afternoon I walked up Bullion Cafion. It was 

 a six-mile, uphill tramp, but it was one of the most de- 

 lightful walks of my life. Beside me the brook roared, 

 danced and flung itself into a foaming fury. The lofty 

 rocks stood like black sentinels in the outlying waste of 

 the snow and the great pines were silver with the frosts 

 of winter. Now the trail was crossed by the sharp-cut 

 hoof print of a deer and now the sprawling mark of the 

 mountain lion was imbedded in the drift. Beside me a 

 noisy crowd of Rocky Mountain jays quarreled and 

 chattered, and snow birds flitted in and out among the 

 bushes. 



At length I reached the mine and asked for Mr. Fer- 

 guson. He was pointed out to me. By the way, I looked 

 as seedy as a thoroughbred knight of the road, and if I 

 had presented myself in Forest and Stream's sanctum 

 in such a condition, I would have been kicked out as an 

 impecunious book agent. 



"Mr. Ferguson?" said I. 



"Yes, sir," 



"Can I get a job?" 



"I'm not going to put on anymore men for a month." 

 "Fine mine you have here." 

 "Pretty fair." 



"How far in is your lower tunnel?" 

 "About 1,100ft." 



"How about that native silver strike that you made 

 last week and that you've been keeping so quiet?" 

 "Oh! there's nothing in it." 



"Well, now about that 60 per cent, galena lode in the 

 220-foot level?" 



"See here, young man, what paper do you represent?" 



"What makes you think I'm a newspaper man?" 



"Oh, I piped off those gold specs and that long lead 

 pencil in one pocket and the note book in another, and 

 you don't want a job any more than I do. Now what's 

 the paper?" 



"The Salt Lake Tribune:' 



"AH right. Go down to the bunk house, get your feet 

 warm, and after supper you'll go home with me and spend 

 the night." 



He gave me his own horse and walked down the caiion 

 while I rode through the gathering gloom. Three miles 

 down the creek we stopped. The exterior of the house 

 was not different from others I had seen in the Southern 

 settlements, but within — I had seen nothing like it in six 

 weeks. It was a home. There were Eastern papers and 

 magazines on the table and there were the comforts of 

 life, and when we sat down to a late supper there was 

 snowy linen and no greasy bacon, and more than all, 

 there was a hostesa in every aesse of the word. Why, it 



was almost as enjoyable as a trip East to meet once 

 more with people who could think and talk and who 

 knew something. 



After that I wandered often up the oafton. Sometimes 

 the blinding banks of snow would drift down from the 

 mormtain and then there would be wai-m days, and bye 

 and bye I saw a flock of geese fly northward through the 

 Sevier Valley, and behind them were a pair of sandhill 

 cranes. In the leaveless sarvice berries sang a thrush 

 and before me hopped a robin, and 1 knew that the 

 winter was going and that soon I could get through the 

 lofty passes of the Rockies and down to the Grand Canon 

 of the Colorado. But if I can I will camp for a month 

 this summer on Bullion Creek and catch the gamy trout 

 and hunt the deer and the bear and fill my herbarium 

 with the beautiful flowers that grow on alpine summits 

 and follow the receding snow. 



It was the last Sunday night of my stay in the Bullion 

 district. The morning had been spent in the assay ofiice 

 and.mymind was a confused whirl of grams and milli- 

 gi-ams, of sulphates and nitrates, of chlorides and bro- 

 mides, of antimonial and galena compounds, and I 

 wanted a change. 1 rapped on the door of Mr. Fergu- 

 son's house. Around the fire his family was sitting and 

 the conversation drifted to the ever enjoyable subject of 

 game and fishing. Mrs. F. told of the beavers that she 

 had seen just up the creek. An irrigating ditch had been 

 taken out and the diversion of the water almost drained 

 a pool where the beavers lived. They went up above the 

 ditch, cut stakes about 2ft. in length, drove them verti- 

 cally into the ditch, made a dam and ran the water over 

 the bank right down into their old haunts. 



Mr. Holderman then told of his first experience with a 

 bear. When he first came out to the w^ld country he 

 went on a deer hunt with a man named Callaway. Just 

 at night a storm came up and they had to camp against 

 trees with theii' blankets over theh' heads for protection 

 against the rain. About midnight the dog charged into 

 the brush and commenced to bark furiously. 



"I can tell that it's a bear by the way that dog acts," 

 said Callaway. Haldeman tried to light a fire while his 

 partner stood guard with a rifle. Nearer came the noise. 

 They crouched behind the big pine, a rifle pointing out at 

 each side. At length the dog ran whining to them, be- 

 hind him was a small animal no bigger than a cat. It 

 had no protection but its own quills and was commonly 

 called a porcupine. 



At another time Holderman went out and saw a bear. 

 He succeeded in wounding it, but it escaped and he gave 

 it a long chase. Finally he thought he had found it. He 

 heard a rustling in the bushes and fired at the soimd. As 

 a result he had to pay for a poor widow's only pig. But 

 practice makes perfect, and to-day Mr. Holderman is one 

 of the most expert and successful sportsmen in the whole 

 region. Shoshone. 



Bullion Canon, Utab, Feb. 19. 



THE IMITATION SPORTSMAN. 



BT THE AUTHOR OF "THE BRIDAL TOUR OF THE KENKEDTS." 



THE other evening I was sitting by Henry's side at our 

 comfortable hearthstone sewing, and looking over 

 at him I saw he was reading the Forest and Stream, 

 and my thoughts naturally took . me back to our first 

 housekeeping in a tent, and by the time I had about 

 reached the doxology of that episode, "How good, O 

 Lord, that we commenced our life in the Garden of 

 Eden," Henry gave a great snort over his paper, and I 

 knew he must be having a little fun while his suft'ering 

 family was stitching its eyes out in patient silence. So I 

 went and looked over his shoulder and saw him reading 

 the "Answers to Correspondents." Now, Henry is an 

 irreverent man and sometimes laughs at things his 

 superiors seen no fun in. There was only a little question 

 about whether or not sportsmen's axe No. 3 was well 

 liked by the fraternity, and I am sure this was one of the 

 things Henry did wrong to laugh at, for you, Mr. Forest 

 AND Stream, answered in youi- gravest, courtliest manner 

 that it was. I asked Henry what a sportsman's axe No, 

 8 was, and he said it was a little sawed oft" axe aboiit as 

 big as a hatchet attached to a leather belt trimmed with 

 Hamburg edging. 



After little he asked me if he had ever told me about 

 George Devoy. And then, when I replied that he had 

 not he laid down the paper and began to tell me about 

 him. I wish to preface his story by saying that I think 

 Mr. Devoy a very nice gentleman, and that my husband 

 took advantage of his credulity as he has done with 

 others equally as good as himself, although I name no 

 names. 



"Many years ago, my dear," he said, " when you were a 

 little girl in short dresses, I met Mr. Devoy through my 

 clerical connection with the ofiice of a great railway 

 magnate. My position on that raih-oad was humble- 

 Third Past Assistant Keeper of the Book of Car Num- 

 bers—my salary was small, and my office on the top floor 

 in a back room at a plain open-front desk; whereas Mr. 

 Devoy was private secretary of the Supreme Grand Master 

 himself, he of the frowning glance, the set eye, the iron 

 jaw and the special car. His salary was commensurate 

 with the reflected glory of his office, and he sat in a 

 swing-back office chair with a red velvet cushion and 

 made out passes with an air that has never been equaled 

 sinee Hector was a small child. Now, there was a fellow 

 in my office named Warner, who used to go hunting with 

 me when he could get away and spent his other time 

 doing some of the real work of a raih'oad, but who was 

 never so busy but that he was ripe for mischief, especi- 

 ally when the Supreme G. M. was out on the road in his 

 car. And one day he brought me Mi\ Devoy and gave 

 him to me body and soul for eight delicious weeks. He 

 introduced me to him with an unwarranted tribute to 

 my skill as a sportsman, which gave me a suspicion that 

 something was in the wind, and in the course of conver- 

 sation Wai'ner, who was my superior in years, position, 

 sportsmanship and all things else save goodness, paid 

 such studied deference to my opinion, my slightest sug- 

 gestion on matters of the chase, that 1 was not whoUy off 

 my guard when he finally explained that himself and 

 Mr. Devoy were planning their fall vacation, and had 

 concluded to try and get me to accompany them on 

 account of my knowledge of the game resorts, skiU with 

 the shotgun, etc., etc.; and I said that I would think it 

 over. 



"Well, I thought it over in Warner's company, and the 

 result was that I named a deep pine forest in northern 

 Michigan as the objective point, the paradise of all the 

 paradises of the sone of guas of the earth. Quail? The 



