250 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



tOOT. 15, 1891. 



tremely moderate, $7.50 for board, $3.50 for boat hire, 

 cart hire and personal attendance. Just then York came 

 in laboring under some excitement and asked me to come 

 over to the other hoiise' as there was going to be music in 

 the air, Leon's bill would bankrupt the crowd. It was 

 exactly double the other. I have one beside me now, 

 and will copy the unique production: "Board for Cap 

 and York, $18; horse and wagon, $6; three days' labor, 

 $9; for hire of boat, $2; one bottle of 'peches', $1; down 

 to "Wash Woods, $3.60; use of decoys, $4.50; fishing, 

 $1.50." 



Charging $9 for personal service topped in the way of 

 extortion anything that ever came under our observation, 

 seeing that both York and Cap cut their own bushes, 

 made their own blinds, planted their own decoys, brought 

 in their own birds. The labor of this worthy consisted 

 in dumping his guests on the ground and then driving 

 off. Even the the decoys were not his, I lending York a 



Eortion of mine. A highwayman will generally allow 

 is victim to retain enough money to take him back 

 home, but Leon would take his last cent if he could. 



Last summer Col. Lewis was at the club and received 

 an urgent telegram recalling him home. It happened on 

 the odd day of the week, the steamboat only leaving on 

 the even days, so the only way to get to Norfolk was by 

 a drive to Virginia Beacb. Shant's team was away, and 

 the Colonel applied to Leon to take him to Virginia 

 Beach. Now the regular price for carrying sportsmen to 

 and from the beach to the club is $3 each way; but this 

 Shylock insisted upon charging the Colonel just five times 

 as much, well knowing he had the guest in his power. 

 Not a cent would he abate; the Colonel paid the bill, but 

 has never been down to the club since. Tbe issue is 

 plain, if this man is allowed to invite guests at will to 

 this club, and to practice such extortion, the Currituck 

 Inlet Association will go to pieces to a certainty. If this 

 man does own the land his house stands upon and the 

 piece of marsh he claims, it should be inclosed within a 

 wire fence, and he be made to keep within bounds. 



Many of the shares are held by sportsmen in Baltimore, 

 New York and Boston, and it is a pity their shares should 

 be made as valueless as the paper they are printed upon. 

 And it is hard that an exceptionally fine hunting resort 

 in defiance of all right and justice should be utterly 

 ruined. Either this squatter must go or the club will be 

 bursted insisted of twelve months. 



The three sportsmen I took down intended joining the 

 club, but now decline the honor with thanks. I could 

 not blame them. Alex. Hunter, 



BOSTON SPORTSMEN. 



Editor Forest and Stream: . ^ 



The open season on quail in Massachusetts begins on 

 Oct. 15, before these lines can have been perused by the 

 readers of the Forest and Stream. The prospects for 

 quail shooting in that State are fair, but they would be 

 better but for the fact that too many quail have been 

 killed since the law was off on partridge and woodcock. 

 The dog points a bird. The hunter is all on the qui vive 

 for a partridge. The bird is flushed, but up goes a quail! 

 In nine cases out of ten bang! goes the gun, and possibly 

 bang! bang! a bird vrith both barrels. This is done almost 

 before the sportsman has time to think, even if he be a 

 good friend of the conservation of quail. The temptation 

 is great, and the chances for shooting, almost uninten- 

 tionally, are numerous. A report comes from reliable 

 gentlemen who have been shooting shore birds on the 

 Cape this fall, that it is of no use for the Massachusetts 

 Fish and Game Protective Association to put out live 

 quail and partridge on many parts of the Cape for the 

 sake of restocking with these game birds. The farmer's 

 boy is there with his snares, and in some cases the farmer 

 himself. One gentleman declares that he knows of many 

 rods of snares in the vicinity of Marshfield, and of birds 

 being taken in them. He does not care to furnish infor- 

 mation to the game protectors that shall lead to the con- 

 viction of the guilty parties, for he goes to that neighbor- 

 hood every fall for shore bird shooting. 



The Plummer boys, Gordon and Albert, of the Boston 

 leather trade, had more than than their usual luck, at 

 Nantucket, with the shore birds this year. The shot701bs. 

 of birds on their trip. The number of birds was 380 in 

 all, with the biggest score at 383 in one day. The next 

 day after this big shoot not a bird was to be seen at the 

 very place where the great luck was had. The flight had 

 passed. 



L. W. De Pass, assistant secretary of the Boston 

 Chamber of Commerce, with Dr. W. B. Cutler, of Boston, 

 and C. W. Hodkins, of Reading, have lately returned 

 from a fairly successful trip to the Cape after shore birds. 

 They report fair flights this fall. 



E. M. GUlam, commercial editor of the Boston Adver- 

 tiser, is shooting rather more than usual this fall. Mrs. 

 Gillam is also shooting with him. She is practicing with 

 the shotgun with the determination of becoming a good 

 wing shot. They live in Denham, and go out nearly 

 every morning with their finely trained dogs. The other 

 morning Mr. Gillam rather missed a good shot. A friend 

 invited him the night before to be on hand at 4 A. M. to 

 start for a duck hunt. He was up in season and started 

 to drive to his friend's house. The road he was some- 

 what acquainted with in tbe daytime, but in the darkness 

 matters did not look right. He drove and drove, but 

 still did not reach his friend's house. The road did not 

 look right. At last he reached his friend's place by a 

 very roundabout way twenty minutes past four. His 

 friend's wife informed him from her chamber window 

 that her spouse had been gone about five minutes, fast 

 driving would doubtless catch him. Again Mr. Gillam 

 drove and drove till he was tired, and at last he drove 

 home and put up his team. Later he met his friend with 

 seven beautiful black ducks, the result of the morning's 

 shoot. Mr. Gillam has another invitation to a duck 

 shoot. 



Two of the most successful local gunners in suburban 

 Boston, as well as two of the best shots, Gardiner Eames, 

 well known as "Gard," and Charlie Davies, have been 

 out several times, with the result of a good brace of 

 partridges each time. The other day they started three 

 birds. One Gard shot. The other two were likely to get 

 away, but Charlie's right barrel nailed one. He whirled 

 and shot the other with his left. But the charge did 

 more. One shot hit Gard squarely between the eyes. It 

 went in so far that it had to be cut out. But Gard kept 

 on gunning as usual. He says that at first he thought 

 that his left eye was gone. "If 't had," he remarked 

 afterward, "I should probably bave kept on gunning 



but if it had been my right eye, I should have been 

 obliged to have practiced shooting from the other shoul- 

 der. If it had been both eyes I should most likely have 

 been obliged to have given up shooting altogether." 



Among the late sportsmen to start for the Maine woods 

 and waters may be included Mr. L, Dana Chapman, of 

 Dame, Stoddard & Kendall, tackle dealers in Boston, 

 with S, C. Dizer, of Prouty & Dizer, of the boot and shoe 

 trade. Late in September they started for the Megantic 

 preserves, with the view of hunting moose in Canada till 

 the open season in Maine, when they designed to make a 

 return trip, via Tim and Seven Ponds. 



Mr. E. B. Hosmer, of the well-known grain firm of 

 Hosmer, Crampton & Hammond, of Boston, is loolKng 

 for moose and deer at the Megantic preserves. 



Mr. Herbert C. Leeds finished the trout season at Birch 

 Lodge, Eichardson Lake, the guest of Mr. Bayard Thayer. 

 Mr. J. Otis Wetherbee, a well-known Boston lumber 

 dealer, also spent a couple of autumn weeks at that beau- 

 tiful camp. 



Judge Allen, of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, made 

 the autumn trout season at Lake St. John. His success 

 was only fair in that much boasted region, 



Mr. H. S. Kempton, assistant managing editor of the 

 Boston Herald, is making the first and second weeks in 

 October at Camp Stewart, Richardson Lake, looking for 

 deer and partridges. 



Mr. P. H. Kelly, the well-known Catholic church 

 builder, with his friend Bateman, the architect, were at 

 the Upper Dam for two or three weeks. But they did not 

 have their usual success at fly fishing. The weather was 

 too hot and the water far too low. Spectal. 



PENNSYLVANIA QUAIL SEASON. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Our Legislature some time ago cut off two weeks of 

 our quail season by making Dec. 15 the closing date; the 

 purpose as given was to save the birds from being pot- 

 hunted in the deep snows; but as we have few snows 

 prior to Jan. 1 this was unnecessary. Not content with 

 this the next Legislature cut two weeks off the beginning 

 of the season, moving the opening date to Nov. 1, thus 

 making the time but six weeks, probably the shortest 

 season of any State, and certainly an absurdly small pro- 

 portion of the year in which to use our dogs and guns; I 

 understood this movement was made by members from a 

 few of the garden-spot counties, Lancaster, etc., who 

 probably hoped thus to save their few remaining birds; 

 but their country assuredly cannot be garden spots and 

 game covers at the same time, and it is dotlbtf ul if com- 

 plete protection in such closely cleaned up fields and 

 pastures would help the supply, while it is plainly unfair 

 to the remaining nine-tentlis of the State, which require 

 no such limited season. 



It may be said that Oct. 15 found some coveys of quail 

 too small to shoot; yet if the opening date was deferred 

 to Dec. 1 there would even then be an occasional lot of 

 imdersized birds, for it is found that now and then broods 

 will be hatched as late as the fall months; but take a 

 normal season, and by Oct. 15 most of the coveys will be 

 found well grown. 



The change to Nov. 1' deprives the quail hunter of prob- 

 ably two of his happiest weeks in the season. October is 

 the ideal shooting month, and the last two weeks of it, 

 when the master and dog hardened their muscles and 

 cultivated endurance, when the former, as much as the 

 shooting, enjoyed nature at her best. Even though it 

 cuts off the Christmas shooting for the vacationist and 

 home-comer we will willingly forego Decembers last 

 two weeks, but for tbe two cut off at ^he beginning of 

 the season we say make the season an even eight weeks 

 and restore us again those last days in lovely October. 



^^^^^ OSTYJUTTA. 



MOOSE IN NOVA SCOTIA. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have just returned from a two weeks' moose hunt in 

 Nova Scotia, and am promjpted to give my experience. 

 I went to the same grounds that I hunted in the fall of 

 1890, and found the cow moose signs more numerous than 

 last year, but the bulls scarcer. This I attribute to the 

 unusual hot weather of September, The bulls will not 

 travel much until frosty weather. The trout fishing was 

 fine, and partridges more plentiful than last year. 



The first morning's hunt we called up a large bull 

 moose. He stood about 300yds. off', almost breast on (a 

 trifle quartering), looking straight at us. He never made 

 a bit of noise in coming to the call. Finding he would 

 come no nearer, 1 fired at him and wounded him badly. 

 The bullet passed through him somewhere, as he was 

 bleeding on both sides, and although we followed him 

 for nearly three miles, we had to give him up. 



The next morning we called up another bull, but he 

 would not come out of the cover. We could hear his 

 horns knocking against the trees, and hear him answer, 

 but we never saw him. 



Two mornings after I killed a very large bull moose. 

 The largest I have ever seen. We were calling some four 

 miles to northwest of our main camp. That was an ex- 

 citing morning's sport. It was wonderful what sagacity 

 that animal showed in coming to the call. At one time 

 he stood for fully fifteen minutes without moving, 

 about 600yds, off, looking straight at us. Finally he 

 moved toward us. We could see his great black body 

 passing through the underbrush and hear his horns strik- 

 ing the trees. At last he came out in an opening about 

 300yds. off, and looked in our direction. He made a 

 grand picture as he stood there, with his mane bristling 

 up and horns looming out in the foggy light of dawn. 

 Thinking that as good a time as any, I shot. He ran 

 about 150yds. and fell stone dead. He was shot through 

 and through. He would easily weigh l,0001bs. when 

 dressed. His horns were not so long as one would sup- 

 pose they ought to be for so large a moose. They spread 

 3*:t., and the bend of the horns measured almost 5ft. 

 They are nicely palmated and even. We salted him 

 down where he fell, and the meat filled three large 

 barrels. 



That same morning we heard a cow moose give a long 

 plaintive call, and looking in that direction we saw her 

 standing in an open not very far from where we had 

 been calling. She soon passed out of our sight. A cow 

 came up with the bull that I killed. A few days after 

 we called up another bull, but we did not get a glimpse 

 of him, 



One could have good sport on these grounds ia Optober, 



as the bulls must have come in there by this time. There 

 have been fifteen moose killed that I know of, within a 

 radius of thirty miles of where I hunted, and probably 

 several more that we did not hear of, A bull moose was 

 hauled out past where we camped the last night in the 

 woods, 1 fear from what 1 heard that a good many of 

 these moose were snared. This fall I saw four moose 

 and heard two others in two weeks, and last year in three 

 weeks I saw eight and heard several others. We set 

 three log bear traps and baited with trout, but after 

 awhile the bait became soft and the bears took out the 

 bait, failing to spring the traps. H. W. HAMiiYN. 



HOHOKTJS, New Jersey. 



NOTES FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



CANADENSIS, Monroe Co., Pa., Oct. 5,— The grouse 

 shooting among the Pocono Mountains has not been 

 a success so far this year. The birds ai'e in good num- 

 bers, but on account of the heavy foliage cannot be seen 

 when they ai'e flushed. Rabbits are in large numbers, 

 and on Nov. 1 will offer lots of sport. Every morning 

 the hound runs one or two into tbe clearing back of this 

 shooting box. There are a few ducks flying now; and 

 once in a while we get a few on Elk's Pond, which is a 

 short distance from here. One bag made on the first day 

 of the grouse season consisted of two woodcock, five 

 doves and eight grouse — a far return for a twelve-mile 

 tramp. The birds are on the hills still feeding on the 

 wild frost grapes, and so are very hard to get at, as the 

 walking is beastly. We are all looking for a hard frost' 

 and a good blow to help rid us of the foliage. The trout 

 fishing was. very good this year and promises to be better 

 next, as the underbrush along the runs has been cut out. 



COLLINGWOOD. 



Snow geese first appeared in this vicinity Sept. 28.. ^ 

 Hutchin's brant arrived about a week earlier; in small 

 flocks yet and flying high. Canada geese have been fly- 

 ing for three or four weeks. Mallards and teal are coming 

 down from the north in small numbers, although duck 

 shooting has been goftd around the coulees and slough 

 holes wherever there - is any water. Prairie chicken 

 shooting has been very good and t^here are a good many 

 strong coveys left yet. The indications are good for ex- 

 cellent goose shooting for the next six weeks. Visiting 

 sportsmen of the right kind will be well received and can 

 get good accommodations. E. T. Jvbd. 



CANDO, North Dak., Oct. 3. 



Have been hunting ever since I could hold an old 

 musket against a tree, but have never seen quail so 

 thick in all my life. Come down and be convinced and 

 satisfied. H. 



DovEB, Oklahoma. 



Weather is delightful, QuaU are more than plenty. 

 Fishing always good. Tarpon. 

 Tabpon Sphings, Fla., Oct. 5. 



A SUFFOLK COUNTY ASSOCIATION. 



I> EPRESENTATIVES of the principal sporting clubs 

 of Suffolk county, L. I., have recently formed a 

 game protective association entitled "The Suffolk County 

 Game Protective Association.'' The objects of this asso- 

 ciation are the enforcement of the game laws of this 

 State and the preserving and propagation of game and 

 fish in tbe county of Suffolk. 



Special game constables will be placed in various partsi 

 of Suffolk county, and the association has determined tO' 

 take energetic measures to secure the enforcement of the* 

 garne laws, to prevent the unlawful taking of game birds', 

 and the selling of the same out of season. 



The directors are: Harry B. Holfins, Alfred Wagstaff,. 

 Arthur D. Weekes, Robert B. Roosevelt, and Frederick: 

 Edey. Its membership includes representatives of all', 

 the sporting clubs on Long Island. Mr. Jil. H. Moeran isi 

 counsel of the association. 



Among the clubs represented in the association are the' 

 Southside Sportsmen's Club, the Brooklyn Gun Club, the 

 AVaverly Gun Club, the Bay Shore Gun Club, the South- 

 ampton Sportsmen's Club, the Robins Island Club, the' 

 Westhampton Club, the Flanders Club, the Hempsteadl 

 Club, and many others. 



The association has been organized for the same pur- 

 poses and somewhat on the same principle as the one: 

 now so sticcessfully conducted in Connecticut, and it is; 

 to be hoped that it will receive the hearty cooperation of 

 the public and the authorities in accomplishing the laud- 

 able objects for which it was formed. 



THE CONNECTICUT ASSOCIATION. 



THE officers of the Connecticut Association of Farmers 

 and Sportsmen for the Protection of Game and Fish, 

 for the year, are: President and Treasurer, A. C. Collins^ 

 Hartford; Vice-President, Dr. N. W. Holcombe, West 

 Simsbm-y; Secretary, Hon. Geo, P. McLean, Simsbury, 

 I3irectors: Hon. Geo. P. McLean, Simsbury; Hon. J, C. 

 Chamberlain, Bridgeport; John R. Pitt, 'Middletown; 

 Francis B. Skinner, Rockville; F. W. Whitlock, Water- 

 bury: Samuel A. Eddy, Canaan; Geo. A. Reed, Chaplin; 

 Z. R. Robbins, Norwicb. Executive Committee: A. 0, 

 Collins, Hartford; Dr. N, W, Holcombe, West Simsbury; 

 C. H. Smith, Jr., Hartford; A. E. Hart, Hartford, and 

 Geo, P. McLean, Simsbury. 



Mr. Collins writes: "Since our organization in 1888 

 we have successfully prosecuted seventy game and fish 

 law violators at an expense of nearly $1,400. It costs 

 about §20 to convict a fish or game violator, or in other 

 words, it costs our $1 members about five cents for each 

 conviction. If we were furnished evidence it would cost 

 less," We bespeak for the association a cordial support 

 by farmers and sportsmen. The movement is in the right 

 direction. They have hold of the right end of the stick. 



Locked Elk. Horns.— Mr. E. C. Sloan sends us an in 

 teresting photograph of two pairs of elk horns locked 

 together. They were discovered by Capt. David Howard 

 and his son in Pacific county. Wash., and were sold to a 

 Milwaukee purchaser for $300. The skeletons of the 

 antlered foes were found where the horns were; as Mr. 

 Sloan says, "There was no survival of the fittest here," 

 It was found impossible tp separate the two without 

 breaking them, 



