Sept. 10, 1S91,1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



14 B 



for stuffinsr, the rapid lowering of the sun made it neces- 

 sary to travel the latter half of the way at the limit of 

 spped. A.S it was we left the packs at the further end of 

 the pond and got to the cabin just at dark. On the 

 second day we were here half the aistance to B 'aver Bog 

 completely stumped one of the party, who tn-day easily 

 made the round trip and carried on the return a heavy 

 and unwieldy burden. It is a cnnclu?ion reached by 

 reason and experience, that a one-mile walk across 

 country carrying the usual hunting equipment is the 

 eqm'Talent to two and one half on a level country road. 



Wednesday, Nov if .—The day passed without import- 

 ant event, but was many marine miles from being an 

 unenjoyable one. We began with the luxury of a late 

 breakfast, and while Mac stayed at home to sketch the 

 caribou head and exult over the four hides artistically 

 hung up to dry, the rest of us skirted the shore of the 

 road on the thin ice to fetch the venison left the night 

 before at the further end. Wdl lugged one pack to 

 camp, and I took the caribou ti'ail to a trap which we 

 found unsprung and frozen fast to the ground. On the 

 return raised a flock of partridges and brought home 

 two of them. In the afternoon Mac visited a lumber 

 camp that was building a mile or two down the buck 

 board road, where he saw them twitching in logs, chink- 

 ing the cabin, and performing many other peculiar 

 feats between interludes of extraordinary profanity. 

 G. and I in the meantime attempted ice boating with 



afoot, but though we walked and watched for several 

 hours nothing came in sight. Once or twice, however, a 

 breaking of twigs in the woods gave evidence that large 

 game was moving thereabouts. The bog, in spite of its 

 namp. is a fascinating spot, and whether illuminated by 

 bright sunshine or dully lighted by a cloudy sky one can- 

 not but feel the charm of its fair tranquillity. To day the 

 clouds bung low and as a result the scene displayed quite 

 a different set of colors. The spruces were rusty looking, 

 the tree-moss had lost its luster and the dry leaves of the 

 bushes by the shore of the pond were of a chocolate 

 brown, unmixed with any warming red. Perhaps this 

 was due to the shrinking: and twisting of the leaves by 

 cold, which made them expose their dull under surfaces 

 more generally. The caribou we were after, but did not 

 get, is an incomprehensible creature and one that enjoys 

 the distinction of being the stupidest beast that ranges 

 the woods. He has a strange fondness for ice and when 

 the cold weather comes on will lurk about the ponds as a 

 small boy does waiting for the ice to hold him, and, like 

 his little brother in folly, not infrequently starts the 

 weather with a frigid bath. When the ice is strong 

 enough the caribou, number from one to a herd, begin 

 their insane freaks. If snow has fallen they will often 

 travel the entire length of a pond and then turning slowly 

 around return as they went, studying and sniffing their 

 own footsteps, or else they may follow the hobnail tracks 

 of a hunter till their curiosity leads them to the muzzle 



himself in a field, and while the fox's back is turned, or 

 head bent to the ground, moves slowly toward him, stop- 

 ping instantly and remaining in however uncomfortable 

 a position whenever the fox raises his eyes. Intermittent 

 progress is made in this manner until the animal comes 

 within range, and if the first shot misses sometimes a 

 second and even a third shot is obtainable before the fox 

 takes final leave. The practice does not seem credible, 

 when the wary fox nature is considered, nevertheless it 

 is a fact that many are bagged in the way described, 

 and it is said the expert enjoys the sport as much as 

 hunting larger game. 

 Hmc olim, meminisse juvdbit, 



STILL-HUNTING DEER WITH BIRD DOGS 



NOTHING that has recently appeared in Forest axd 

 Stueam has so much pleased and interested me as 

 the article of "H. L." on this subject. It is a new use 

 for our favorite dogs. It ought to serve as consolation to 

 the bounders. It to me is a new way of circumventing 

 the timid deer, and one which has everything to recom- 

 mend it. There are sections were still-hunting as com- 

 monly practiced has many difficulties but where hound- 

 ing is well-nigh impossible. I think hounding is gener- 

 ally prejudicial to the hunting in any place — often des- 

 tructive of it. Still-hunting is by all odds the best and 

 tnost decent way to kill deer, but the truth is that very 

 few of us are such adepts at it that we need not welcome 



- - - -.■v ...,.,-.,-..l-.^-.....,..... r..::J^m. 



a flat-bottomed skiff, in the hope of bringing in the re- 

 maining pack of venison with minimum exertion. 

 Grant's maxim of life taught him by his father is: 

 "There's more in calculation than there is in hard 

 labor," but in this instance the figures he used in this 

 calculation must have got mixed, for after a laborious 

 hour or more we were many hundred yards from the 

 pack, and finally returned to camp with but a lively 

 sense of our rwn foolishness. The voyage, however, 

 was unique. The pushing was done with spikes, sticks, 

 and the paddling with a pitchfork, which drove the boat 

 over, through, and any way but under the ice. This 

 piece of foUy was expatiated by a shove, the first and 

 last of the trip. 



The penitential work ended, Mac called me to the pond 

 to see the sunset. The autumn beauty of the day was 

 ending in a glorious burst of color; for the sun, unwilling 

 to leave the pond at once to the faint lighting of stars, 

 tempered his going with a broad auroral band of pale, 

 luminous yellow. Above the color changed impercepti- 

 bly to pink, and higher up in the heavens it merged into 

 the clear blue of spsce. A single ^tar near the western 

 horizon shone white as a diamond, while over toward the 

 north the pink and yellow were crossed by two white 

 lines of azure. A few moments later a tinge of green 

 was noticeable in the yellow, then it changed to orange, 

 and finally died away in a red haze. Against this glow- 

 ing field the trees on Maple Hill and in the swamp at the 

 left stood out in clear black lines, while a narrow ribbon 

 of light laid along the softer outlines of one of the bound- 

 ary mountains, showed that the sun was only then leav- 

 ing its distant crest. The smooth ice of the pond between 

 us and the west eerved as a mirror to the colored sky and 

 saved the light from wasting, as it did in the surrounding 

 wc^ds, 



Thursday, Nov. i^.— This morning we all went to 

 Beaver B jg and as the new black ice on Tim Pond was 

 strong around the shore the first part of the journey was 

 comparatively easy, The three miles through the woods 

 took one hour, ten minutes. The ]Bog Pond was frozen 

 BoUd; 80 we could fcrarel up and down its entire length 



AMONG THE WILDFOWL.— II. 



Just Akfjved— Broadbills and Sprigtails. 



of a rifle. They exhibit several other odd tricks on the 

 ice, and also have several peculiar ways of their own in 

 the woods, but though an inordinate curiosity may be at 

 the bottom of much of their behavior, there must be some 

 other spring of action in their dull brains which we know 

 nothing of. 



At Tim Pond tried unsuccessfully to time the flight of 

 a bullet by firing vertically. The bullets either fell in the 

 woods or else we could not hear them strike the ice. The 

 evening was spent in bewailing the flight of time and 

 making far future plans by way of relief to present 

 sorrow. The packing, hatefully suggestive of a more 

 artificial life, is ended, but one blissful night's rest is 

 waiting to wipe out all unhappinesatill to-morrow. 



Friday, Nov. 14- — The day of our leaving opened as I 

 had hoped it would, dark, cheerless and moist, with no 

 streak of sunshine or breath of stimulating air. The 

 buckboard and baggage had left early, and two sad indi- 

 viduals sat down to an ill-cooked breakfast which was 

 followed by the usual morning smoke in an unusually 

 bare cabin. The fire, too, was going out, but a few sticks 

 of well-seasoned birch brought back at orce the lively 

 flames which rose as merrily up the chimney as on the 

 day of our coming, and for the moment quite banishing 

 the thought of approaching care and work. This transi- 

 tory pleasm'e ended, we drenched the glowing coals that 

 nothing joyous might remain and turned our backs upon 

 the blackened hearth, the empty hut, the icy pond with 

 dark surrounding hills and lowering western sky, and in 

 utter desolation of spirit we left the deserted place and 

 its dreary scenery. A quick walk to Smith's farm (one 

 and three-quarter hours) brought us there in time for an 

 early midday dinner, and soon after we were on our way 

 to Stratton, where we took a rig and got to Kingfleld a 

 little before six P. M. 



On the drive out saw a fox running across a field near 

 a farmhouse. These animals are very plentiful about 

 Stratton, and the hunting of them is done in a way that 

 to the uninitiated would seem altogether impracticable. 

 When the foxes come out in the morning or evening in 

 search of miqe land other small game, t^ie hunter statjops 



a little help from our four-footed friend. Somebody said 

 not very long ago that still-hunting was the most des- 

 tructive way of killing large game. I can understand 

 how it is rather destructive in sections where the game 

 has not become shy. But it is simply absurd to talk 

 about the evils of still-hunting in a section where the 

 deer bury themselves in dense thickets during the day 

 and only come out to feed in the friendly darkness of 

 night. 



But what I started out to do was to ask your corres- 

 pondent to give us a little more of the benefit of his ex- 

 perience. Perhaps he will kindly answer some ques- 

 tions. I will not deny that I think his idea a specially 

 valuable one here in Mexico, but although there is a good 

 deal of self-interest in my drawing him out I am sure 

 other readers will be both interested and profited. 



Will "H. L." kindly give us a brief account of his 

 method of training dogs for this kind of hunting? I 

 should like to know, too, whether he finds the pointer or 

 setter best, whether this kind of work unfits a dog for 

 bird hunting, whether a bird dog will catch and hold a 

 wounded deer — in short, all he is willing to tell us, and 

 should be glad if he would throw in some more of his in- 

 teresting experiences. Aztec. 



San Lms Potosi, Mexico. 



Another Forest Preserve.— Sherwood, BuUard & 

 Co. have sold 1,000 acres of Adirondack land, known as 

 Long Pond tract, embracing Long Pond, Round Pond, 

 Rock Pond, west branch of the Oswegatchie River, apart 

 of Fish Creek and other streams, to a company to be 

 known as the Long Pond Fish and Game Association. 

 The purchase, it is understood, was made by gentlemen 

 residing at New Bremen and Croghan for Syracuse parties. 

 The capital stock of the company is placed at $10,000, 

 divided into shares of $2 each. It is said that as soon as 

 the organization is perfected, work will be commenced 

 upon a large hotel of modern style, and on several camps 

 at desirable points. The purchase includes some of the 

 best hunting and fishing terjfitory in the Adirondacks.-— 



