174 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Feb. 25, iSfiS. 



{§xme §%g md §>nq. 



Antelope and Deer of America. By J. D. Caton. 

 Price $2.50. Wing and Glass Ball Shooting with the 

 Rifle. By W. C. Bliss. Price 50 cents. Rifle, Rod and 

 Gun in California. By T. S. Van Dyke, Price $1.50. 

 Shore Birds. Price 15 cents. Woodcraft, By u JSfess- 

 muk.'' Price $1. Trajectories of Hunting Rifles. Price 

 50 cents Wild Fowl Shooting; see advertisement. 



The pull texts of the game laws of all the States, Terri- 

 tories and British Provinces are given in the Booli of §ie 

 Game Laws. 



THE NEW YORK GAME BILL. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The fish and game bill which is now before the New 

 York Legislature is in the main like that which was in- 

 troduced last winter, and which after passing the As- 

 sembly failed in the Senate, because of the dead lock. 

 That it did pass one house in about its present form is 

 presumptive evidence that it may again pass. Without 

 knowing the recommendations that the Syracuse conven- 

 tion will make at their session to-day, I wish to call at- 

 tention to some features of the bill. 



Sec. 104 reads: "No fish shall be fished for, caught of 

 killed through the ice in any waters inhabited by trout, 

 salmon trout or landlocked salmon, nor shall any attempt 

 be made to so catch the same, except as permitted by 

 Sections 133 and 143." Sec. 133 excepts Lake Ontario, 

 Lake Erie, the Hudson and Niagara rivers. Sec. 142 ex- 

 cepts the catching by hook and line of bullheads, catfish, 

 eels, suckers, perch, pickerel and sunfish in Lakes Cham- 

 plain, Seneca, Cayuga, Keuka and Canandaigua. The 

 object of this law is to prevent the catching of trout 

 through the ice while ostensibly fishing for another 

 species of fish, and the intent of the law is commendable, 

 but it is too broad in its application. 



Yellow perch are found in many interior lakes that 

 contain lake trout (a year ago the Fish Commissioners re- 

 solved that S. namaycush should be known as lake trout, 

 but the law-makers still adhere to salmon trout as the 

 name of this fish), and they form an important item in 

 the food supply of the dwellers on the shores of these 

 lakes. They are at their best during the winter months, 

 and catching these through the ice does not in the least 

 interfere with the trout. Should Sec. 104 become a law 

 in its present form, the people about Lake George, 

 Schroon Lake, and other lakes would be deprived need- 

 lessly of an important food supply. 



In some of the northern lakes whitefish are caught 

 through the ice with hook and line, and they are caught 

 at no other time. They cannot legally be taken with nets 

 and so go on multiply ing and filling the water except as 

 they are caught through the ice. This matter, however, 

 is less important than the one of cutting off the winter 

 supply of yellow perch. 



Sec. 110 makes the open season for black bass from 

 May 30 to Jan. 1, except in Lake George, where it opens 

 Aug. 1, and in Black Lake, St. Lawrence county, where 

 it opens May 5. This law, as proposed, is a disgrace to a 

 State that pretends to protect its fish during the breeding 

 season. Black bass spawn all t hrough the month of June. 

 Anglers who realize the fact and who desire to protect 

 the bass during the actual breeding season, have procured 

 the passage of special laws covering more than a dozen 

 lakes and streams in the State, and in instances the 

 waters of entire counties in which it is forbidden to catch 

 black bass before July 1. Sec. 110 will undo all this good 

 work if it becomes a law, and Lake George will be the 

 only water in the State in which black bass are protected 

 during the season of spawning. 



Sec. 130 reads: No fish, fish fry, spawn or milt, except 

 speckled trout, brook trout, brown trout, salmon, trout, 

 rainbow trout, Adirondack frost-fish or landlocked sal- 

 mon shall be placed in the waters of the Adirondack 

 • region unless the fish so placed,* or are non-preying or 

 non-destructive fish, such as usually constitute food for 

 the species above named, except under the immediate 

 supervision and in pursuance of a resolution of the Board 

 of Commissioners of Fisheries." The last sentence of 

 this section, which T have italicized, is the gateway 

 through which those interested in introducing blade bass 

 into Adirondack lakes expect they will be admitted. 

 Should the result of such introduction be disastrous to 

 other fishes the responsibility is to rest upon the Fish 

 Commissioners, therefore it will become them to act with 

 caution, particularly as they are given the power in Sec- 

 tion 119 to remove all deleterious fish from any waters of 

 the State, and it is for the avowed purpose of destroying , 

 pickerel that it is desired to introduce the black bass". It 

 would seem far better for the Fish Commissioners to net 

 out the pickerel from the Adirondack lakes, as was done 

 in Loch Leven, and successfully done, than it would be to 

 put in a more destructive fish. 



It will be noticed that in Sec. 130 the sea salmon is not 

 mentioned as one of the fishes which may be planted in 

 the Adirondack region. Loch Leven trout, too, are 

 omitted from the list. Many thousands of sea salmon 

 have already been planted in Salmon Biver, and Congress 

 has made a preliminary appropriation for a United States 

 hatchery for propagating salmon and whitefish in north- 

 ern New York, and it is more to the point to provide for 

 this fish than it is to make a close season for moose, cari- 

 bou and antelope, as Sec. 48 does, when there are none 

 of these animals wild in the State. Sec. 107 provides 

 that "trout of any kind, salmon trout or landlocked sal- 

 mon," shall not be molested on their spawning beds, and 

 it will be an easy matter to make the same provision for 

 sea salmon, which are as much in need of this protection 

 as the fishes named. 



Sec. 137 provides that when lake trout are taken in nets 

 in the Hudson River they must be returned to the water; 

 but there is no restriction against taking codfish with a 

 fly in Adirondack brooks at any time. This should be 

 attended to, for one is fully as important as the other. 

 Sec. 106 provides that "trout of any kind, salmon trout 

 or landlocked salmon" shall not be taken or possessed 

 under 6in. in Jength. The index to the article, by the 

 way, says Tin, 



*This section is quoted literally from the hill. It is meant to 

 read "Unless the ftsb. so placed are indigenous to the particular 

 water where placed, or are, etc." Tiie omission of the underlined 

 words being, undoubtedly, a clerical error. 



Lake trout and landlocken salmon should not be taken 

 under 13in. in length. The average length of three-year- 

 old lake trout is about 13 Jin., and this limit in length 

 would put them on an equality with brook trout of 8in. 



Article XI. provides for the building of fishways in 

 dams that are already built, and if the article could be 

 made to be retroactive in its provisions, it would be an 

 act of simple justice, according to a decision of the 

 United States Supreme Court, and prove of great value 

 to the fisheries of the State, A. N. C. 



GiiBNS FAins, N. Y., Feb. 18s 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



The sportsmen of this section of the State are quite in- 

 dignant at the unjust discriminations in the proposed 

 game law as prepared by the codification committee. It 

 fixes the open day on woodcock Sept, 1, except in the 

 counties of (see Sec. 149) Lewis, Warren, Saratoga and 

 Richmond. 



Why these exceptions? Is it not to favor those who go 

 out for the summer? Richmond county for those who do 

 not leave the city during summer. Saratoga and War- 

 ren for thope who summer at Saratoga and adjacent 

 resorts, and Lewis for those at Thousand Islands. Let us 

 look at the consistency of the thing a little, taken from 

 the point in fairness to ail and also the preservation of 

 game. Three of these counties are among the best breed- 

 ing places in the State ; is this any reason why the open 

 season should bo a month longer? Suppose that the 

 opening was the same, which is all we could expect, and 

 that should be as late as Sept. 1 — or later — in which sec- 

 tion would there be the longest season of shooting? As is 

 well known, but very few birds breed in this section, so 

 about all the shooting we have is what we get during the 

 fall flight, which is but for a few days should we have 

 continued cold weather during that time: so by compari- 

 son we find they would have about six weeks shooting 

 counting the flight Oct. 15, while we would have about 

 one week. The same conditions exist in regard to wild- 

 fowl. Until we can have a common interest and there 

 shall exist a universal sympathy among the sportsmen of 

 the whole State how can we expect the hearty co-opera- 

 tion of all? 



In writing this we have endeavored to bring the ques- 

 tion squarely before those interested and state our griev- 

 ances in as mild terms as possible; and we would be very 

 much pleased to hear from those who propose this law, 

 perhaps there is some very urgent reason for it that we 

 have overlooked. H. W. Brown. 



BlNGHAMTON, N. Y. 



AN ARKANSAS DEER SCRAPE. 



THREE sharp raps on my bedroom door were quite 

 sufficient to awaken me, although it had been little 

 more than three hours since a night express had landed 

 us at an Arkansas station of the Iron Mountain Rail- 

 way, and we had retired, leaving orders to be awakened 

 at daylight to complete our journey to the camp ground, 

 twenty -five miles into the woods. There were ten in the 

 party. Some went with the two teams, which carried 

 the camp outfit, and the rest — Staff, Byers, Danny, Jake 

 and I — took a freight caboose to a nearer station. 



It was the morning of Nov. 3, and proved to be clear 

 and frosty, but from the appearance of the foliage there 

 had not been many such before it. By the time our 

 station was reached the sun was shining brightly, and 

 the solid banks of heavy timber covered with purple and 

 brown foliage, beautiful here and there with large 

 bunches of dark green mistletoe, contrasted most favor- 

 ably with the bare and broken timber we had seen the 

 day before. 



Having completed our geographical calculations on 

 board the freight train, we lost no time in setting our 

 course and starting in the best of spirits on our fifteen- 

 mile tramp through an unbroken forest to our camp- 

 ing ground, where we hoped to meet the others of the 

 party with the teams in the evening. 



The noon hour reached and lunch devoured, we sepa- 

 rated into a line with Danny at its head, Byers and Jake 

 next, with me at Staff's right — all with orders to dress to 

 the left and march about 150yds. apart. The column 

 had moved thus for perhaps a mile, when suddenly I 

 heard the familiar thrup, thrup, thrup of a deer bound- 

 ing through the brush almost immediately in front of 

 me. Staff's rifle spoke and Jake's as well; and a moment 

 later another shot was heard further down; and as Danny 

 did not come to us we went to him and found he had 

 clipped it through the shoulders as it was clearing the 

 line. In a few minutes, with our assistance, he had it 

 swung around him shot- pouch fashion and took the lead 

 for camp. As I stood for a moment watching his proud 

 step with the first game of the season, I noticed he was 

 bearing a little to the north of our supposed direction 

 and I remembered afterward reminding him of the fact. 



The line of march was again taken up and pushed 

 slowly toward the river, which was reached about an 

 hour before dark at a bend a mile north of our objective 

 point. The teams had arrived and every one was hurry- 

 ing to get things into comfortable shape at the earliest 

 possible moment. The sun had not shone since noon; a 

 soft, mist-laden breeze from the south was one of the 

 many indications of a rainy night, and one rainy night 

 in Arkansas at this season of the year means another, 

 and perhaps another. Danny had not come in yet. Staff 

 and I stepped down to the bank and fired three shots as a 

 signal for him, which, to our astonishment, were not 

 answered. Thinking that perhaps he was coming and 

 too near to answer, we ate supper, and then renewed the 

 signal with the same result. The idea of leaving a man 

 to pass a night alone in the woods was not so serious, but 

 the mystery surrounding the matter made us anxious. He 

 was one of the best woodsmen in the party and not more 

 than five miles out when last seen, and how could he be 

 out of hearing now? The most plausible solution to my 

 mind was that starting, as he did, too much to the north, 

 instead of being able to correct his error continually led 

 his course more and more to the north, as I have often 

 found myself involuntarily tending to a wrong bearing, 

 requiring a most persistent effort to correct myself. Ac- 

 cording to my proposition, Paul and Watson joined me 

 in the boat for a trip up the river. We had gone three or 

 four miles, when frorn away across to our left came an 

 answering shot to our signals, but as my compass indi- 

 cated it to the north of us we kept on rowing for a mile 

 or so further, when, on rounding a bend in the river, the 

 gleam of Danny's camp fir© shone out brightly on the 



water in front of us. On our way home Danny explained 

 that he had struck the river too far to the north, and 

 thinking be was too far south had started up the river 

 instead of down and traveled until dark. Tired, wet and 

 hungry, the only confort he was able to surround himself 

 with was the roaring fire where we found him, and by 

 which he intended to sit until morning. The return trip, 

 although down stream, was anything but a pleasant one, 

 for the night was perfectly dark and the river, which 

 makes frequent short bends, is filled with logs and tree 

 tops, making anything like rapid progress quite danger- 

 ous, particularly so since our little boat was loaded to its 

 full capacity. We made the trip, however, without seri- 

 ous mishap, and found no one in camp too sleepy to shake 

 Danny's hand and congratulate us on our successful find. 



There is perhap3 no word in the English language that 

 will more suddenly or thoroughly arouse a tent full of 

 sportsmen on the morning of their first day's outing than 

 "Breakfast!" It had that effect on us. We found that 

 the threatening drizzle of the evening before had deep- 

 ened into an old-fashioned straight down rain. But with 

 hip boots, gum coats and great expectations, most of us 

 were in the woods by the time it was fairly light, Byers 

 and myself going east with the understanding that Fred 

 and Jake would met us at the lick at noon. Finding 

 plenty of sign at an old crossing just north of the lake, I 

 determined to put in the morning there. Seated on a log 

 I watched attentively every movement for a long time, 

 with ear alert to the slightest unusual noise; but as noth- 

 ing at all occurred to disturb the monotony of steady 

 dripping of the rain drops on the leaves, I was all uncon- 

 scious of the fact that my vigilance was being supplanted 

 by a mental calculation as to a scheme of forming a syn- 

 dicate, buying 50,000 acres of that land at 81.50 per acre, 

 building a tramway to the nearest station to transport the 

 timber, and was just about deciding that there were 

 millions or more in it, when I saw a deer moving at an 

 easy lope 8Gyds. to my right, I succeeded in stopping 

 him with a low sharp yelp or bleat, but as he gave me a 

 very poor sight, owing to some brush and red leaves, I 

 preferred to let him move again, which he very soon did 

 somewhat faster than before, and my second call failed 

 to halt him; but just as I saw his brown coat over the 

 bead the trigger answered my touch, and down he 

 tumbled, a fine young buck with three points. His bead 

 mounted on an easel bearing my initials now adorns the 

 home of a friend who is an ardent admirer of art and 

 nature combined. 



On the fifth and sixth some turkeys and smaller game 

 were brought in. As Eli was the hero of the next day, I 

 will tell his experience exactly as he gave it to me, and 

 am perfectly willing to vouch for its truth. 



He says: "The morning was clear and the leaves crisp 

 with a light frost. Watson and I started south from camp 

 feeling more hopeful than before on account of the 

 weather. Watson having come all the way from Omaha 

 to join our party at St. Louis, and being a new man in 

 the woods, had been placed under my guidance from the 

 first, but up to this time was a little suspicious of being 

 shown any game, knowing that I had placed Staff on a 

 sheep path on his first trip, and evidently expected, simi- 

 lar treatment. After going four miles from camp we 

 struck in west from the ridge road and soon found sign. 

 'I'll stop him!' said Watson, as we stood looking at a 

 fresh scrape. 'Thunder! look at that footprint. I'll bet 

 the buck was a corker that made that scrape. I would 

 be willing to sit here a week for a good shot at him.' 



"Leaving Watson at the scrape I went south about 

 200yds., which was as far as I could trace any indication 

 of a runway. Here I remained motionless for an hour 

 or more. The air was so chilly that I grew quite uncom- 

 fortable and, as misery hankers after company, my mind 

 too took a gloomy turn and was filled with gloomy 

 thoughts of home and business. These, coupled with the 

 fact that the moon would be down at 10 o'clock, which 

 hour was fast approaching and was thus reducing my 

 chances of seeing deer to the merest possibility, had the 

 effect so to reduce my spirits that I was really miserable. 

 Here I arose to my feet and in a voice above a whisper 

 (a habit I have acquired while alone in the woods) said, 

 'Here, Eli, this won't do. This is a moment you have 

 spent months to prepare yourself to take full advantage 

 of. You have not missed a practice meeting for fifty-two 

 weeks, nor an opportunity to talk as long as any one 

 would listen to you about the nice times we had in these 

 woods last year — and year before, and the exceedingly 

 pleasant thing in store for us this — until by your own 

 force of argument you have induced at least one new 

 man to invest $40 in a rifle and to travel a thousand 

 miles to take part in the fun. And now here you are; 

 enjoy yourself! 



"As my eye swept a semicircle, I saw to the west a 

 small deer grazing, out too far away for a sure shot, and 

 the wind being from the east, I had an advantage of him. 

 I watched him. His head would go down to get a mouth- 

 ful of grass, and his tail would wag at the same time. 

 Under such conditions a few steps can be taken toward 

 a deer, which sees nothing except what he is taking into 

 his mouth. When his tail wags again look out, for up 

 comes his head again; and a general survey is taken each 

 time; but he only seems to consider moving objects, 

 after he has masticated his food, and satisfied himself 

 that no enemy is near, wag goes the tail and down goes 

 the head, when a few steps can be gained as before. Fol- 

 lowing these rules very carefully, I managed to work my- 

 self within 100yds., when I fired with the .44 Winchester, 

 aiming behind the shoulder. He ran across a slough up 

 on to a ridge on the other side. At my second shot, away 

 he went through the switch cane as though nothing had 

 happened to him. 



"On crossing the slough to where he had made his stand 

 after the first shot, I found blood, then more blood and 

 then lots of blood, from the loss of which I knew he must 

 lie down soon. I moved very cautiously to the top of the 

 ridge and saw him still going, but in a few minutes he 

 keeled over. I owled to Watson, and we soon had him 

 on a pole, and carried out to the blazed road on the ridge 

 leading to camp. It was a second year buck, of about 

 80lbs. We soon had him hung up out of reach of the 

 wolves, and were just starting out for the river when we 

 met a native. 'Mornin',' said he, 'I see fyou fellers hev 

 got it, and a nice one too, heap better eating than the big 

 ones. The deer aint in these parts like they used to be, 

 I've see 'em here ten and twenty in a drove, and up on 

 the scatters of Cash River, when I was a young man was 

 a fine range, but they are scarce now, and a power of 'em 

 died last fall with the black tongue, I heve only been 



