-"^ov. 1&, 1891. j 



FOHEST ANt) STREAM. 



349 



shot from the An^lesea lighthouse up to Towusend's 

 Inlpt, a distance of 8 miles. 



English snipe, killdeer and many other bay birds are 

 fairly abundant in Cape May county, and, thanks to the 

 West Jersey Game Protective Society, the quail which 

 have been planted here for two years are fairly abundant, 



I rather rejoiced that Henry Sydney, with his |125 

 harj merless, had "flattened me out at the polls" at our 

 first bunting bout. But when I catch him in the Cape 

 May woods, after gray squirrels, I will "wipe his eye" in 

 such sportsmanlike fashion that he will become "weary" 

 and want to go back to his quail, mud ben, killdeer and 

 English snipe. Forme my $25 gun is quite good enough; 

 the "peskj" pheasants and woodcock fly too fast for me. 

 I am 'content with an occasional mud hen and can still 

 knock a squirrel's eye out with a rifle at 100yds. And a 

 handline is good enough for me, though on occasion I 

 can take a red drum with rod and reel in the most ap- 

 proved Pesthetic fashion. When I fished for trout the 

 red worm was always eminently satisfactory; and some 

 r:f the "heavy swells" of the Philadelphia Club, twenty 

 }*ear.^ ago, with their book (worth |100) of grizzly-king 

 and uOck-Scott flies, were quite willing to acknowledge 

 me as "high hook" among the Tobyhanna trout: albeit 

 Ihey assumed to curl their noses at my bait au nature!. 



J. M. S. 



WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS FOXHUNT 



''pHE fourth annual fox hunt of the Western Massa- 

 l chusetts Fox Club was held Wednesday and Thurs- 

 dav, Nov. 11 and 12. 



The evening of the lOth the officers of the association, 

 with a goodly number of the members, collected in the 



parlors of the Park Square Hotel and established their 

 headquarters there, giving the house and its surroundings 

 the appearance of a frontier post, instead of the leading 

 hotel of a quiet New England vdlage. The scene was 

 one long to be remembered, and one to please and delight 

 a. true hunter's heart. The officers of the club were 

 liusied in enrolling new members for the association and 

 greeting the old ones whom they had not seen since the 

 meet of a year ago. Many of the arrivals sought an early 

 couch so as to be prepared to join in the early morning, 

 providing the storm should subside during the night. 



At an early hour the huntsman's horn was sounded, 

 and the shrill note of the bugle was heard up our princi- 

 pal streets indicating to hunters that despite the drizzling 

 rain the hunt was on, and that let it blow high or blow 

 low, the hunters who composed the Western Massachu- 

 setts Fox Club were up and prepared for an early start. 



The start was made from the Park Square Hotel about 

 6 -.30 amid the baying of hounds, shouts of bus drivers, 

 firing of red fire and the best wishes of the hosts of 

 friends, and of more than one of the many members 

 of the club who were obliged to remain behind owing 

 to the severity of the storm, iphich at the time foreshad- 

 owed the day's sport and cast a gloom upon all. 



When President Rorabock gave the order to start some 

 thirty hunters with a dozen or fifteen hounds set out for 

 the East Mountain district, where the Westfield division 

 had territory assigned them. In the meantime a squad of 

 hunters from Northampton, Easthampton and South- 

 ampton were to occupy the territory at Rock Valley, 

 adjoining the East Mountain district, while a third party 

 of Springfield and Holyoke hunters was to begin the 

 chase at Bears Hole upon the opposite side of the East 

 Mountain chain. All the divisions were to rendezvous at 

 or near the Hampden Ponds, four miles from Westfield, 

 and from thence in a body to return to Westfield in time 

 for the supper which was to be served in the Gem 

 Opera House. The Westfield division was divided into 

 two sections, one under the leadership of C. D. Allen 

 and the other headed by Burt R, Holcomb, the veteran 

 fox hunter of this section, who, by the way, showed 

 twenty-eight fox pelts for last season's score, 



A. portion of the Holyoke party, owing to tb© rainy 



weather, came to Westfield in a tally-ho coach, arriving 

 about 7:30, and learning that the Westfield party had 

 left they immediately gave orders to the driver to pro- 

 ceed at once after the Westfield men, whom they soon 

 overtook, and with them joined in the hunt. But the 

 storm soon assumed such proportions that the hunters 

 were glad to find protection in barns or other outbuild- 

 ings so they might protect themselves from the deluge of 

 water that was falling; and many is the joke that is told 

 at the expense of officers and members, of the means 

 that was resorted to, to occupy the time during the late 

 hours of the morning, especially those who occupied the 

 leaky old barn near the ponds. All were more or less 

 wet, and many disheartened returned to the hotel at 

 Westfield to await the return of clearer skies. 



At about three in the afternoon a decided change for 

 the better occurred and the hunters who had the pluck 

 and nerve to withstand the storm of the earlier portion 

 of the day began to return, and as the result Mr. Lyons, 

 of Southampton, scored one, the Owen Bros., of East 

 Granby, scored two, Burt R. Holcomb one, Charlie Mer- 

 ritt a beautiful silver gray, shot near the Montgomery 

 line; Hon. R. B. Crane one, shot near his Wolf Pit Stock 

 Farm; P. B. Rumrill one, concerning which there is a 

 question. In all seven pelts were upon exhibition at the 

 hotel, and the fortunate hunters were of a necessity the 

 heroes of the hour. A beautiful and clear sunset in- 

 dicated for the morrow a rare day. 



Thursday morning, the 12fch, an early start was made 

 for West Parish, the "fox district," and the South wick 

 Road, where last season a good showing was made; and 

 it proved this season to be the same, for with a much 

 smaller number of hunters four foxes were secured and 



AMONG THE WILDFOWL.— XI. 



Will They Cosie ? 



several were driven into rocky hedges, showing that this 

 is a most favorable resort for reynard ; and the club made 

 no mistake in selecting Westfield as its objective point in 

 this direction. 



At the business meeting of the club the following offi- 

 cers were unanimouslv reelected to serve another year: 

 Geo. W. Rorabock, President; F. S, Gross, Vice-Presi- 

 dent; N. A. Harwo:)d, Treasurer; Dr. O. J. Shepardson, 

 Secretary. Probably most of the other officers will be 

 retained. It is still further to be hoped that Westfield, 

 with its many advantages, will be selected for next sea- 

 son's hunt. 



Three young foxes were upon exhibition at the Opera 

 House during the banquet, and attracted much notice as 

 they paced about the cage with large red ribbons about 

 their necks. They were captured a few days previous to 

 the hunt in Southwick, being dug out of one hole, and 

 the Southwick hunters say "the woods are full of them." 

 Considerable of a laugh is occasioned when the names of 

 two nimrods are mentioned, and all from the following 

 fact: About a week previous to the hunt these two 

 noble and valiant hunters had hired the sons of a well- 

 known farmer to secure for them two foxes and to keep 

 them caged until the fox hunt, for which service they 

 were to pay $10 a head. The offer was too tempting to 

 be overlooked, so the two foxes were secured and the 

 hunters were so informed on the second day of the hunt. 



The crafty sportsmen departed for the home of the 

 farmer in high glee with the prospect of two pelts before 

 them. Arriving they proceeded to tie the two foxes to 

 trees, and then proceeded to blaze away at the poor help- 

 less victims, with the proud hope in their noble breasts of 

 carrying home the pelts. But alas for the fickleness of a 

 hunter's fortune and the unsteady aim of the hunter. 

 One poor fox was slightly hurt and was afterward ;killed 

 by the farmer's son, while the other was liberated, the 

 shot cutting the string with which he was tied ; and when 

 PhU, after the smoke had cleared away, looked for his 

 fox, it was seen making long and rapid strides for the 

 adjacent woods. It is said that at the hotel at Southwick 

 these two nimrods were trying to hush up the farmer and 

 his sons by tempting bribes of double fees for services 

 rendered. 



There is no question but that with favorable weather 

 the club would have increased its membership to 300 , 

 but even with the unfavorable conditions it is to-day 

 probably the largest club in the country in point of 

 numbers. Some 250 names appear upon the roll of mem- 

 bers, including men from all walks of life. 



WORONOCO. 



Westfielt), Mass., Nov. 14. 



NIGHT SHOTS AT A "BOCK." 



I WAS in camp this fall with Dr. Houston, near the 

 Au Train River, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. 

 As a rule, game is fairly plentiful there, though this fall 

 the cold weather came very late, the leaves hanging to 

 the smaller trees and brush to the close of the hunting 

 season, which made still-hunting very difficult. Nearly 

 all the hunters with whom we talked were dissatisfied 

 with the change of the open season, saying that it closes 

 much too early ; however, notwithstanding a poor season to 

 hunt, neither the Doctor nor T were "skunked." 



Oar nearest neighbors were a party of four from Pitts- 

 burg and Windsor, Ohio, one of whom is a famous hunter 

 and fisherman, who has hunted the woods and fished 

 every stream there for some eight or ten years; in fact, 

 S. visited the region before any roads were opened, the 

 rivers, lakes and trails which bear his name all testifying 

 to the fact that he is a veteran woodsman. 



S. worked hard to get a shot at a deer, tramping miles 

 by day, and shining late into the night when the weather 

 permitted, but all in vain; but he did not get discouraged. 

 Often when he passed our camj) in the evening, on his 

 way to the river, he would announce his firm determin- 



ation to "kill a bock" that night; this occurred so often 

 that the phrase "kill a bock" passed into a byword with us. 



For the benefit of the uninitiated, I will explain that 

 "shining'" consists in strapping a bullseye lantern to the 

 head, which will on a dark night show a pair of deer's 

 eyes seventy-five yards or more away. Sometimes you 

 can get near enough to see their bodies, but often you 

 can see nothing but their eyes, which shine like two 

 bullseyes, and you shoot at them. There is an uncertainty 

 and sometimes danger attending this mode of hunting, as 

 one cannot always tell what he is shooting at. I heard 

 of one homesteader who shot his own cow; a gentleman 

 from Chicago killed a neighboring camp's pet cat; and on 

 our return to Au Train we heard of a more serious acci- 

 dent that had happened the night before, a man shining 

 had been shot in the neck, though not killed, by another 

 hunter who was inexperienced and mistook his bullseye 

 for an eye. Shining is unlawful, but the game laws can- 

 not be enforced ten or twenty miles back in the woods. 



But to return to S. and his "bock." He started out 

 with a companion one dark night and ere long I heard a 

 report and hoped he had been successful, so when I came 

 in an hour later, I dropped in and inquired, "what luck?" 

 At first he replied that he had missed, but afterward, on 

 my pledge of secrecy, he told his experience. He was 

 cautiously following a trail near by; getting an eye, he 

 nudged his companion to keep quiet, waited until he got 

 the second eye, a nd then fired. He assured his friend it 

 was "bock," as the eyes were big ones, but hearing noth- 

 ing he looked again, and found he had been shooting at 

 the moon, which was just rising and shining through the 

 trees. Manning Fish. 



Mississippi Valley Deought.— Alexandria, Mo.— The 

 entire valley of the great Mississipi has had an unbroken 

 drought of four years. The snows and rainfall have been 

 so light that there was scarcely any drainage to support 

 the rivers. The Mississippi has been lower than it was 

 ever known, and the historic low water mark of 1864 has 

 to yield to the record of 1891. These successive dry sea- 

 sons and low water account in a measure for the small 

 number of waterfowl that hare frequented these regions. 



