July 14, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



27 



A DAY WITH THE GROUSE. 



On one of those clean, northerly, transparent Novem- 

 ber mornings, when the elfin frost eketchers had left the 

 tops of the kitchen window panes sufficiently clear to 

 give an impressionist effect of yellow sassafras leaves in 

 the yard and embers of autumn over beyond upon the 

 mountain side, John and I moved our creaky old-fashioned 

 chairs up to the farmhouse table and fortified ourselves 

 lor the prospective hunt with hot buckwheat cakes and 

 sausage gravy, with home-made sausages that had 

 splutterea and burst in the frying-pan and then turned 

 ail crunchy when their insides had quickly browned, 

 and finally, with a warmer of coffee containing blobs of 

 real cream and uncertain sugar. 



We were clad in stout canvas hunting suits, flannel 

 shirts, thick hob-nailed brogans, and corduroy caps; and 

 if any one doubted our intentions for the day they should 

 have seen Don and Belle, the two setters, as they rapped 

 the table legs with their tails, and poking their heads into 

 our laps with impatient whines looked up with that in- 

 tense expression that one sees when the dog realizes that 

 his master is all ready for a hunt. Honest old Foghorn, 

 the hound, sat in drop eared dignity with bowed head 

 near the stove, looking at us occasionally out of the 

 corners of his eyes and hoping that he would be invited 

 to follow, but knowing full well that when we were out 

 after grouse it was his day to remain at home. One who 

 has not lived and loved with well-bred dogs cannot ap- 

 preciate their keen perceptions and their quick divination 

 of many of the master's thoughts and intentions. The 

 ordinary observer would have said that Foghorn did not 

 care to go with us on 

 that day, and that the 

 other dogs were wist- 

 ful because such was 

 their habit, but not 

 a word had been 

 spoken, and they all 

 judged of our plans 

 for the day from 

 something in our 

 manner that the gift 

 had not been given 

 us to realiz3 our- 

 selves. Dogs seem 

 to see the ill-defined 

 nebulae of thought 

 and have their de- 

 ductions all made 

 while the philosopher 

 is waiting for some- 

 thing more definite; 

 and although the 

 quickness of their 

 conclusions is antag- 

 onistic to good anal- 

 yses of our motives, 

 they turn at each 

 limitation of knowl- 

 edge to a friendly 

 supposition, and it is 

 with a wag of the 

 tail instead of a growl 

 that they await fur- 

 ther information. Bo 

 that as we become 

 more familiar with 

 philosophers' ways 

 we find a little more 

 yet to appropriate 

 from our setters. 



But this is digres- 

 sion. We were not 

 out of the door before 

 Don and Belle had 

 bounced through 



ahead of us, and the frightened hens about the stone 

 steps ran and flew ca-dark-ut-ing in great con- 

 fusion back to the barnyard and over the fence 

 into the orchard. A chilly crow unhunched himself 

 from a frosty rail and flopped heavily along over the 

 field of corn shocks and ungathered pumpkins, and out 

 of the stiff frozen grass fluttered a few belated white- 

 throated sparrow as we rustled noisily along through the 

 windrows of dead leaves in the path. High up on the 

 hill tops the sun was just beginning to mingle with the 

 few brilliant leaves that still clung to the maples, and 

 down in the valley a line of haze above the dark hem- 

 locks marked the course of the stream that had been so 

 interesting to us in the trout season. It was a rough 

 climb through the woods to the upper grounds where we 

 intended to hunt, and the air was provocative of such en- 

 ergetic movements that we were in a glow when the high 

 levels and the morning sunshine was reached. Away to 

 the right of us stretched a series of beech and chestnut 

 ridges, with many acres of thick pines and hemlocks, 

 while the edges of the woodland were lined with brushy 

 lots, and patches of reddish buckwheat stubble here and 

 there adjoined the saplings. 



Festoons of grapevines hung from the hornbeams in 

 the gullies, and the ground in many places was thickly 

 carpeted with wintergreens and princess pine. In the 

 debris of the very first crumbling log we found a group 

 of four wallow holes and a loose grouse feather that 

 looked as though it had been recently shaken out. 

 Neither Don nor Belle made any signs of game just 

 there, but they ranged eagerly back and forth to the 

 loose heaps of brush, through clumps of sapling pines 

 and along the stump fence, until the rapid wagging of 

 Don's tail as he hesitated for a moment in the cart path 

 showed that a grouse had been along there that morning. 

 For several minutes Don was busy in trying to determine 

 the direction of the trail, but gradually becoming con- 

 vinced he started off cautiously through the scrubby 

 oak bushes with elevated nose and swinging tail. We 

 could see his nostrils dilate and hear him snuffing, as 

 with half-closed eyes his every energy seemed concen- 

 trated in the delicate effort of catching the floating scent. 

 How lightly he stepped as he led us off toward a fallen 

 tree top! And then he began to grow stiff" legged, and 

 stopped. His tail straight out: every rauscle rigid: and 

 his right foot lifted from the ground. Belle, seeing that 

 he had foxind a bird, bounded up so hurriedly that the 

 grouse rushed out and disappeared behind a pine before 

 we could shoot. Out from under a scrub oak went an- 

 other grouse,and neither of the guns happened to be read^. 



It was necessary to call Belle in and scold her for being 

 so careless, and her drooping ears and tail showed that 

 her feelings were hurt more than they would have been 

 if we had punished her. The direction that one of the 

 birds had taken led us out to a sumac thicket on a knoll. 

 Both dogs were making signs of game and trying to lo- 

 cate the grouse, when suddenly out of the ferns at my 

 very feet burst a great gray cock and sprang whirring 

 into the air, swishing the saplings with his wings and 

 whisking a circle of loose brown leaves into the air of 

 his wake. The instant that the gun stock struck my 

 shoulder and the trigger was simultaneoualy and uncon- 

 sciously pulled, the feathers flew in a puff, the powerful 

 bird dropped headlong through a thorn bush, and struck 

 the ground with a thump, leaving a few loose feathers 

 hanging lightly among the twigs, while dried thorn 

 leaves rattled down from limb to limb as they followed 

 the bird. The empty shell in the gun was quickly re- 

 placed with a loadfd one and Don was given the order to 

 fetch. How proudly he came trotting toward us, tossing 

 the prize upward in order to get a better hold as he ran, 

 and at the same time being careful not to muss the 

 feathers. His eyes were not for a moment taken from 

 the limp grouse in my hand until its tail had disappeared 

 in the capacious hunting coat pocket. 



Along the edge of a buckwheat stubble both dogs 

 worked ambitiously back and forth,f ollowing first one trail 

 and then another until we werecmvinced that a whole 

 covey of grouse had been gleaning there and that their 

 tracks were so intermingled that the dogs had a difficult 

 riddle to solve. We were making a wide detour of the 

 field when it was noticed all at once that Belle was stand- 



web takes the place of a Murillo, there is a feather bed 

 into which the hunter who has killed a dozen ruffed 

 grouse in the day softly sinks until his every inch ia 

 soothed and fitted, and settling down and further down 

 into sweet unconsciousness, while the screech owl is call- 

 ing from the moonlit oak and the frost is falling upon 

 the asters, stocks may fluctuate and panic seize the town, 

 but there is one man who is in peace. 



Dr. KOBBBTT..lSQRItISV 



IN A JULY WOODCOCK COVER. 



ing on a "dead point" at a small wisp of foxtail grass and 

 ragweeds, and Don was a few yards away backing her. 

 The idea that a grouse could hide in such cover without 

 being visible seemed ridiculous, but we had entire con- 

 fidence in the two mute authorities.standing there so 

 motionless in the stubble, and as I walked up to Don a 

 grouse sprang like a new revelation out of the wisp and 

 started off with plenty of room to gain all wished for 

 headway. The first charge of shot loosened a couple of 

 wing feathers and the second shot sent the bird bounding 

 all in a bunch among the seedy ragweeds. Just then 

 two more clucking and squealing grouse with spread tails 

 and half opened wings unexpectedly appeared and 

 ran straight toward me, mounting on wing so close 

 that I could almost have touched them with the gun. 

 Another one jumped from the wisp straight up high into 

 the air, and a moment later two red fellows whirred 

 away side by side low over the field. A volcano and 

 earthquake of grouse! There I stood with unloaded gun 

 and trying so hurriedly to get two cartridges into the 

 breech that they would not have gone into a peck meas- 

 ure just then. If my efforts at being wise had ever been 

 so severe and so energetic as my efforts to get those cart- 

 ridges into the breech in time for a shot, the nineteenth 

 century might have had its Plato. 



One of';:the birds scudding down the wind past John 

 suddenly folded itself up in mid air, and a long shot at 

 another so surprised the bird that it wheeled and alighted 

 in a hemlock at the edge of the field. 



In brush lot and in bark slashing and from hilltop to 

 swale we found grouse that day, and when in the long 

 shadows of the thin sunlight on a cold-waxing autumn 

 evening we reached the farmhouse and spread our birds 

 out upon the woodshed floor, the dogs with ears full of 

 burrs and memories replete with good deeds, curled up 

 contentedly behind the stove for the night. 



The cider in the blue pitcher that was set upon the 

 table after supper helped to strengthen many of the weak 

 points in the yarns of the old settler who had dropped in 

 to tell us of the three coons that he had found in one 

 tree that day, and Gran'ther Bradtree, leaning his sunken 

 cheek on the trembling hand that balanced the cane 

 against the arm chair, was encouraged to tell again such 

 stories of his exploits in the good old days as are usually 

 reserved for grandchildren and withheld from contem- 

 poraries. 



I have seen the beds of Eastern princes, and the luxuri- 

 ous couches of Occidental plutocrats, but under the 

 rafters of a farmhouse in western New York, where the 

 mud wasp's nest answere for a Rembrandt and the cob- 



OLD-TIME HUNTING IN OHIO. 



Further extracts from the him ting diary of a well-knowa Ohio 

 sportsman, oxtractetl from the oriKinal manuscript for the 

 Forest and Stream by the late Dr. E. Sterling, of Cleveland. 

 See issues o£ Jan, 22 and Feb. 13, 1891. 



Nov. 04, i>9J7.— Having received an invitation to join 

 a hunting party from Cleveland, who had camped in Rus- 

 sia Township, Lorain Co., Ohio, we accepted and started 

 off at 8 A. M. in the stage and arrived at Amherst at 4 

 P. M. ; taking it from Amherst we went to Burgesa'd 

 House, four miles, where we stopped for the night. In 

 the morning, getting one of the boys for a guide we went 

 fom* more miles through the woods to the camp of the 

 hunting party. None of the hunters were in camp when 

 we arrived, but toward night they began to string in like 

 bees to a hive. The party consisted of six in all, includ- 

 ing myself. A tixrkey and one deer constituted the re- 

 sult of this, their first day's hunt. Suffering some from 

 cold from sleeping in a tent, it was proj)osed that the 

 whole party should devote the next day to backing in 

 straw from Hi chcock's clearing, two miles away, and 



try to make our sleep- 

 ing department more 

 comfortable. Some 

 went to work and cut 

 down a large tree for 

 back logs, while 

 others fixed up punch- 

 eons around our camp 

 or extended the blaz- 

 ings. A few days 

 after two more hunt- 

 ers joined us, bring- 

 ing with them tobac- 

 co, pipes, a large bag 

 of hard bread and a 

 two-gallon jug of 

 brandy. This addi- 

 tion made eight in aU 

 for our party. Our 

 fire arms consisted of 

 eight rifles.six pistols, 

 two of them rifle bar- 

 reled. 



G-ame was not very 

 plenty at first, but 

 Having a good stock 

 of ju'ovisions includ- 

 ing sugar, codfish, 

 etc.; we passed the 

 time away very mer- 

 rily. At the end of 

 the week, our party 

 having killed five 

 deer, and the weather 

 getting warm, we 

 went to work and 

 jerked them. The 

 snow having all gone 

 and rainy weather 

 setting in, we had no 

 success in hunting for 

 several days, but with 

 oui- jerked venison 

 and occasionally a 

 turkey or partridge, 

 we fared well. Coming into camp one day we discovered 

 that a hound belonging to one of the party had eaten up a 

 large portion of our jerked meat. The aforesaid hound 

 being in the habit of chasing deer continually, and spoil- 

 ing our hunting, we after a short consultation decided he 

 should die. We drew cuts which of us should kill him. 

 The lot fell to X. He led the hound off into the woods; 

 shortly we heard the report of his rifle and the loud yelp- 

 ing of the hound. A few minutes later the hound, all 

 covered with blood, came rushing into camp. We both 

 sprung for our rifles, but getting mine first I shot him 

 down. We then carried him into the woods and secreted 

 him in a large fallen hickory tree top. X, said that when 

 he raised his gun to shoot his heart failed him, and so he 

 made a bad shot. We kept the affair an inviolable secret 

 from the rest of the party,80 it was generally supposed the 

 dog had strayed off or gone home. 



At this time a light snow fell, but in less than twenty- 

 four hours turned to rain, and though still-hunting was 

 bad we never lack for deer, turkeys and numerous lesser 

 game in camp. It so continued rainy weather more or 

 less for the next week, and no prospects for snow, dis- 

 couraging many of the party. The result was that most 

 of them left us for their homes, leaving myself and two 

 others only in camp. We passed away our time pleas- 

 antly sitting around our camp-fire at night, smoking, dis- 

 coursing about the part present and future, and recount- 

 ing all little incidents in each other's history. Our camp 

 was so far from any settlement no noise disturbed us, 

 and the stillness of the forest was seldom broken at night 

 save by hooting owls that had a fondness for our camp, 

 or minor sound peculiar to the locality. Hunters from 

 Wellington, Camden, Henrietta and other clearings near, 

 often visit us, exchanged stories and news of the day and 

 never departed without tasting and partaking freely of 

 our camp hospitalities. 



After living in camp by ourselves three weeks, (occas- 

 ionally killing a deer or turkey, as our tastes demanded) 

 with rain and warm weather continuing, one evening 

 brought a change and fresh excitement in the almost 

 every day routine, by the arrival of one of our hunters 

 from Cleveland with the latest news. Thanksgiving, 

 Christmas and New Year's day had all passed pleasantly, 

 weather open and steamboats making their regular trips 

 from Detroit to Buffalo and touching at Cleveland, on the 

 route. This was Jan. 35. A little snow in the moi'ning, 

 but before noon it had all disappeared. Fate seems to be 

 against us in regard to snow, we had had a glorious time 

 all around, plenty of game to eat for the hunting of it. 

 We were all stronger and in better health than when we 



