490 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



I.DEC. 8, l§9a. 



BOSTON DEER HUNTERS. 



Capt. James H, Jenkiks, the well known sportsman's 

 friend and game warden of West Barnstable, Mass., utter- 

 ly denies the story that has recently been published exten- 

 sively in the Boston papers, to the effect that deer are 

 being hounded and killed in that section, in considerable 

 number. In a letter to Mr. F. E. Shattuok, a well known 

 conservator of game and fish in Boston, Capt, Jenkins 

 says, in reply to a newspaper clipping sent him, that he 

 believes the whole atory to be false. No deer have either 

 been hounded or killea ojtenly in that section this season. 



Still the happy hunters are returning from Maine with 

 deer, with the report that has been repeated a good many 

 times this season, that the deer were never so plenty in 

 that State. They are even killed quite near the settle- 

 ments, Mr. Geo, K. Cutting-, of Andover, Me., a sou of 

 Charles H. Cutting, one of the best trout guides in tbe 

 country, writes me: "My Dear Mr. — I wish that you 

 could have been here to have gone deer hunting with me 

 on the first snows, I have been out only twice and have 

 killed two deer and fired at another, without hitting him. 

 I have shot one of the finest bucks I have ever seen. I 

 have sent the head to be mounted. I value it at S25. 

 The law will not let me kill but one more deer, and I am 

 going after that to-morrow." Mow this is a case where a 

 smart man, a guide and a lumberman, shoots his three 

 deer, the meat of which he will probably use in his own 

 family. Undoubtedly he is only one of the hundredis, 

 living in the backwoods towns, and having enterprise 

 enough to gout out and get a supply of venison. Great 

 has been the preservation of game in Maine. It is very 

 easy to remember back only a few years when the killing 

 of a deer, even as far back as Andover, was a very rare 

 occurrence. So it is in the other towns in that State. I 

 have it second-hand that between 300 and 400 deer have 

 already passed over the railroad through Bangor, the 

 property of sportsmen. It is also mentioned, from ?ood 

 authority, that a taxidermist at Bangor has already some 

 400 heads of big game, theresultg of this season's shooting; 

 the heads to be mounted. This sounds like a big st' ry, 

 and yet from the source through which it comes to me it 

 should be true 



For some reason the reports of caribou killed in Maine 

 this season are very meagre, I have no positive account 

 of any being killed by Boston sportsmen, except the one 

 killed by Dr. Heber Bishop, already mentioned in the 

 Forest anb Stream. There area fewnewspaper accounts 

 of these animals being taken by hunters, but even such 

 accGiints are very few. The number of moose killed has 

 been larger than usual, as already mentioned, but there 

 are no very late accounts. 



Waltham gunners are not out of the race this season, 

 though not very much has been said about them in the 

 papers. There are a good many real sportsmen in that 

 city, both with rod and line and rifle and shotgun, Mr. 

 A, W. Tompkins, now of the fii-m of Foster, Weeks & 

 Co,, Boston, since the death of Mr. Foster, who was not 

 wholly unknown to the readers of the Forest and Stream, 

 has just had a day out with some friends. They went 

 up to their camp on the Sudbury River. They spent most 

 of the day in gunning on the Sudbury Meadows. The 

 grass was something like a couple of feet high and filled 

 with snow. The swamps were only partly frozen, and 

 the snow and grass made it next to impossible to tell 

 exactly where the meadow left olT and swamp began. 

 Such a condition was naturally the cause of several 

 struggles to gain dry land. At last a black duck was 

 sighted in a creek. Very carefully Mr. Tompkins crept 

 up, but the duck was alai-med and flew, giving only a 

 long-distance snap shot, that proved a dead failure. But 

 by watching and waiting in the snowy grass for a long 

 time the duck was seen again to comedown into the creek 

 but further up. Another crawl in the wet and snowy 

 grass gave a better shot, and the bird was pitched into 

 the water by his own gravitation and was dead. But he 

 was on the other side of the creek, and Mr. Tompkins 

 had to go up half a mile to cross and down as far to get 

 where the duck was. This resulted in one rubber boot 

 full of water, cold as it was, and the other about as bad. 

 One of the other boys got a partridge, and at the camp, 

 with its new kitchen, they enjoyed a game dinner, all the 

 more for having earned it. 



Mr. E, E, Jennison.adruggistatWaltham, has recently 

 returned from the Maine woods with a moose that weighed 

 over 8001bs. Mr, Jennison was so much pleased with his 

 success that he has given a "moose supper," and invited 

 all his friends. Special. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



[From a Staff Correspondent.] 



Chicago, 111., Nov. 87.— Some gentlemen of New York 

 must have been big-game hunting in the West this fall, 

 or else must have been buying some trophies. At any 

 rate, they have been having some fine trophies mounted 

 here in Chicago, as T learn from the Chicago taxidermist, 

 R. A. Turtle. Mr. Turtle's books show that on Oct. 7 Mr 

 Edson Bradley (of Paris, Allen & Co., New York) left for 

 mounting 4 mountain sheep heads, 1 mountain goat head, 

 1 brown bearskin, Sdeer skins, 1 mountain sheep skin and 

 1 wildcat akin. On Oct. ft Mr. E, N. Dickerson (of 64 

 East Thirty-fourth street, New York) left 4 mountain 

 goat heads, 4 large skins of the same and 1 small skin. 2 

 mountam sheep heads, 0 mule deer heads, 1 mule deer 

 skin, 1 mountain sheep skin and 1 brown bear skin. Cer- 

 tainly the two above represent very fine collections of 

 game, and perhaps the New York gentlemen may favor 

 Forest a^^d Stream readers with stories of the hunts. 



Mr. Turtle also has in hand a small-mouth black bass 

 caught by Calvin S. Smith, of Chicago, weight 5lbs. lOoz 

 He mounted also the large brook trout (over lUbs.) which 

 lately furnished some of the Chicago boys a fine supper 

 after losing its skin. Another interesting piece of his 

 work is a pair of wild mallards, lately killed by Walter 

 Dupee in AVashington Park, of this city. 



Some of these things I learned last week in course of a 

 little hunt down at Water Valley with Prof. Turtle, or 

 ratlier, Dick Turtle, as he should be called when out 

 shooting. Dick dearly loves a gun, and handles one 

 well— well enough, I know, to beat me quail shooting on 

 a screeching windy day, such as we had, though on rab- 

 bits If eel that I could say a thing or two. We met bad 

 weather and found but little game, but we found a lodo'e 

 m the wilderness of the Kankakee country. This is no 

 less than the studio bos of Arthur Pieraon, an artist of 

 no mean ability, who for six months has been studying 

 the Kankakee scenery, with which he is thoroughly in 



love. Mr. Pieraon has spent eleven years in Paris, would 

 rather speak French than English, and would rather 

 paint than do either. His little lodge is a thoroughly 

 cozy and comfortable affair, highly decorated and well 

 furnished within, and here lives, altogether Bohemian 

 and quite alone, the only man I ever knew who appreci- 

 ated the full possibilities of the Kankakee country from 

 the standpoint of an artist. The artist of America has 

 shown himself so far eager chiefly to do Old World sub- 

 jects. The artists of the West have commonly ^one to 

 the East or to Europe. The West has had few artists for 

 itself. The world does not know how singular, how 

 striking, how grand or how beautiful some of the pic- 

 tures of the West will be when finally they are put on 

 canvas. I hope Mr. Piereon will not grow weary, and 

 that he may had inspiration equal to his task. Hia lodge 

 has been put up since I was last at the Water Valley, 

 but I hope to sleep there again sometime, with a bro- 

 caded fez for a nightcap and an embroidered afghah 

 over my flannel shirt. 



The Possum Club, 



Your uncle. Bill Werner, whose new catering establish- 

 ment is at 93 Thirty-fifth street, has concluded that the 

 Possum Club is something that should not willingly be 

 let die, and as the cold winds of autumn brought to ripe 

 maturity the flash of the skin-tailed varmint, he jumped 

 himself together and made a vow by the great horn spoon 

 that he couldn't wait any longer, and would not only call 

 the Possum Club men together every winter on his own 

 hook, but would do it now, right away quick. So he did, 

 and on last Tuesday evening a Possum Club supper was 

 held, Mr, Werner as host, and nine enthusiastic and 

 hungry possum-eaters as guests. There were present 

 Messrs. L, M, Hamline, C. B. Dicks, F. A. Place, W. P. 

 Mussey, Tom Patterson, Gib Harris, O. A. Malcolm and 

 E. Hough, of Chicago, and Geo. I. Maillet, of Crown 

 Point, Ind. There was a whole lot of possum — that is, 

 there was at first — and if anybody thinks possum isn't 

 good, he is hereby invited to attend a meeting of the club 

 and eat some of Bill Werner's sort. It is the main pur- 

 pose and chief mission of the Possum Club to promote, 

 set forth, establish and support the great fact in natural 

 history that possum is good to eat. Any doubter of this 

 proposition will upon making himself known be taken to 

 the club headquarters and filled so full of possum he 

 can't talk, all objections being thu^ silenced. 



After the club had been in session for some hours, with 

 no sound to break the silence save the chug of the pos- 

 sum going to his long home, Mr. Maillet rose and made 

 the formal motion of confidence in the administration 

 which is put every evening, Mr. Mussey being called to 

 the chair. 



"I move you, sir," said Mr, Maillet, "that it be thesense 

 of this meeling that possum is good to eat." This was 

 carried in due form, and tbe meeting then went into the 

 stage of the second business meeting. Mr. Werner was 

 thanked for his happy idea and its jjleasant fulfilment, 

 and then was politely asked to leave the room, which he 

 did under protest, as he was afraid to leave the silver- 

 ware. In his absence Messrs. Mussey, Place and Hough 

 .were chosen a committee to select a suitable souvenir to 

 present to Mr. Werner at the next meeting, to be held 

 two weeks from date. Mr. Place then moved that each 

 man bring a friend to the next meeting. This was ob- 

 jected to, and it was shown that the old Possum Club 

 plan had developed a large, loose and incoherent body, 

 with no real membership. It was resolved on motion to 

 make the new club a close corporation. The Chair and 

 Mr. Werner were chosen as committee on membership, 

 they to select a third member. These reported the fol- 

 lowing for members: Messrs. C. B. Dicke. T. W. Patter- 

 son, L. M, Hamline, F. A. Pla,ce, R. xl, Turtle. O. A. Mal- 

 colm, G. B. Harris, Geo. I. Maillet, Bernard Waters, Geo. 

 Holden, A. C. Anson, D. Rad Coover, A. E. Thomas, Ed. 

 Bingham, R. B. Orean, Abner Price, F. Donald, C. S 

 Burton, W. N. Low,R. S. Cox, M. ,J. Eich, W. P. Mussey, 

 Wm. Werner, E. Hough. Any of these failing to accept 

 and qualify will be replaced. The club wUl not go much 

 beyond this size, as Mr, Werner's quarters will not seat 

 more. No meeting of the Possum Club will ih the future 

 be held elsewhere than at Bill Werner's. This is part of 

 the constitution. 



Mr. B. Borders, of Winamac, sent me up an invitation 

 to be present at the Winamac annual Thanksgiving hunt, 

 a side hunt on the old system of points, a custom of very 

 questionable value to the game supply, perhaps, but pro- 

 ductive of plenty of fun. The conditions of the hunt are 

 stated as follows: 



"Parties wishing to join in this grand hunt will de- 

 posit sixty cents with either captain , the losers to pay the 

 supper. All hunters must report at 7 P. M, Wednesdav 

 at the oflice of M. A. Dilts. Supper at .Jellison's new 

 dimng room. The game will count in points as follows: 

 Prairie chicken 50, pheasant 50, quail 10, squirrel 15, rab- 

 bit 15, mallard duck 25, small duck (any kind) 20 wild 

 goose 300, swan 300, brant 300, coon 100, opossum 100 

 wolf 1,000, fox 500. M. A. Dilts and T. B, Hedges, cap- 

 tains." 



Mr. Max Middleton, of the Globe Training Kennels 

 Servia, Ind., writes a friend that the quail ai-e not as 

 abundant as usual, but that coons are plentiful, and that 

 his old coon dog was never in better voice in his Hfe. 

 There is talk of a grand coon hunt before long, in which 

 the Possum Club entire may join. 



Mr. Chae. Zutavern writes me from Great Bend, Kas. : 



"I have just noticed an item in the Evening ISewp, in 

 regard to two fellows shooting quail. You having en- 

 joyed some of that sport here, I thought you would be in- 

 terested. Such shooting is likely to affect the future 

 quail shooting in this locality, if there is not a way in 

 which such butchery can be stopped. The item reads 

 'Barney Cone and Howard Bishop have broken the record 

 on quail hunting, one having shot sixteen and the other 

 fifteen at a single shot.' 



"I was up by Heizer on the Walnut about a week ago 

 and found lots of quails. Found four ducks in a popcorn 

 field of not over two acres, I am going to take a Thanks- 

 giving quail hunt on Blood Creek, and expect a fine time 

 Hope If you are out here next year to enjoy another hunt 

 with you, that la, if the butchers will leave the quail 

 alone. Please let me know if there is any way to stop 

 this abominable work. *^ 



''Dick Taylor had two ribs broken and was injured in- 

 terna ly by his horses backing the mowing machine on 

 him, but at this time he is getting along finely " 



I do not know of any provision in the Kansas law 



against this destructive and unsportsmanlike style of 

 shooting. The only thing that will stop it is general 

 sentiment against it. The local newspapers may be 

 ignorant of sportsmanship, as the paper quoted certainly 

 is, and if so sportsmen should go to the editor and show 

 him that he does wrong in commending and not con- 

 demning such things as these. Farmers certainly should 

 not allow on their lands persons who will thus destroy 

 the game. Thus gradually tabooed, such shooters may 

 come to learn better ways. It is hard to exterminate 

 quail by fair wing-shooting. , Pot- shooting, trapping and 

 hard winters ai-e the worst enemies of this bird. 



About the accident referred to by Mr. Zafcavern, Mr, 

 Taylor himself writes thus simply : 



"I have not shot a gun off since you were here. Am 

 laid up for the time — bad three ribs broken by a mowing 

 machine, a near thing for me. Cal Ctully has had Dick 

 off' hunting for over a week. He killed 2t) the other day 

 along the hedge row and then went on to Hoisington for 

 supper. While he was eating some one stole all his birds 

 hut 4. He was pretty mad. The horse that ran off, old 

 IN ed, sends his regards, and I must say he seems ready for 

 another gallop. 



"The Young American Coursing Club has sprung into 

 existence here sinca you left, run by the boys of the 

 place. They ran off a 16 dogs stake on my place last 

 week. Will send particulaxs." 



Some Freezers. 



If anybody wants to do a little protecting, and is hunt- 

 ing for game freezers, he can find a freezer at Estheiville, 

 la., one at Emmettsburg, la., one near Lake Whitewood, 

 Dak., several in Nebraska (details later), a number in 

 Minnesota and several in Illinois, known but not named 

 here. 



Self-Hunting Uoss. 



A correspondent propounds to me the following ques- 

 tion : "Can you not give some remedy to make one's dogs 

 in the country stay around home and not go off hunting 

 by themselves? It destroys half the pleasure of keeping 

 them to have to keep them confined." 



I presume these dogs are what Mr. Waters, of the 

 Forest and Stream kennel wisdom department, would 

 call self-hunters of a pronounced type. Mr. Waters is 

 away from Chicago at the field trials, and I am a little 

 shy on kennel wisdom, but the best way I could think of 

 to make such dog learn to bunt to the gun and no other 

 way, would be to take them out hunting often as possible 

 with the gun, and so teach them the true inwardness of 

 the bird dog idea. Last week I spoke of a Kansas bird 

 dog whose owner lets every one take him out shooting. 

 This dog is within a quarter of a mile of good game 

 ground, but he never goes out bunting by himself, though 

 be will follow any gun. He knows the relation of the 

 gun to the bird very well, and so do all really good bird 

 dogs. A tramp fox-terrier or a cur with a leaning toward 

 rabbits can entice a good bird dog away from home and 

 about ruin him in a little while. Such evil associations 

 should be broken off. I used to have a bird dog which 

 was very fond of visiting, and I fell into a habit of 

 lamning him every time I caught him away from home 

 except on my invitation. In this way he came to love his 

 home, because he never could figure just where he was 

 going to meet me away from home, Unless it were in 

 the case of an old dog that had been running practically 

 wild and unworked for a time, I should think good feed 

 and good treatment at home, with plenty of field work 

 with the gun, would gradually overcome this sort of 

 trouble. As a bird dog grows older, be commonly "learns 

 more sense" and stays more and more closely at home. 

 One dog is not so apt to go out on a hunt without a shooter 

 as are two or more dogs. I think a bird dog ought be 

 kept away from other sorts of dogs as much as possible, 

 and as much as possible near human associations. They 

 "learn more sense" that way, too, and so come to see the 

 fun of hunting only when the gun comes out. 



North Carolina Quail. 



From Mr. J. B. Bumham, of the FOREST AND STREAM 

 office, I have the following, which I am very glad to 

 print. I have never shot in North Carolina, and what 

 little I know of that country is gathered from friends 

 who attend the field trials there each fall. The informa- 

 tion in Mr. Burnham's letter suggests the very natural 

 inquiry : Why do not the owners of sporting hotels and 

 sporting grounds, whose privileges are for sale, advertise 

 them in Forest and Stream? It would only be busi- 

 ness to do so, and it would be a paying form of business, 

 too. My inquirer here is a case in point. My ignorant 

 reply might drive a shooter away from Carolina, A fact 

 stating advertisement might take him there. That is the 

 difference. The letter reads : 



I have juat seen your repjy in Fohesx and Stream of Nov. 3 to 

 Mr. Geo. L, Eddy in regard to quail snooting in North Carolina. 

 I think your answer is rather misleading, as there is plenty of 

 the very best quail shooting to be had in that State without an- 

 noyance of auy kind. As told in Forest and Stream of Sept,. r23, 

 Dr. Capehart. ot Avoca, N. C, has 10 000 acres of nreser^ed quail 

 land thst is free ahoitiuK territory to guests r.f his hotel. House 

 Duukinfleld. Thin place was a'H'ertised in FoBEST AND STREAit 

 last winter and wiH heaKain th's season. The shotting ttere is 

 first tlass, as I have been informed by gontJemen who shot there 

 last winter. Lincoln, N. C, is another locality where visiline 

 sportsmen can shoot to their heart's content over good ground, 

 leased by hotel owners. 



Some other points in North Carolina where a vioiting sports- 

 man would be reasonably sure of good quail shooting without an- 

 noyance at th« hands of tbe "Farmer's Alliance" are Winston, 

 Salpm (Hotel Zinzendorf), Elizabeth City, Edenton, Bellport, 

 Mount Airy, etc. In South Carolina Norman Bros., proprietors 

 of the Carolina Hotel, at Pkock Hill, guarantee plenty of quail on 

 preserved land. E. HOU&H. 



175 Monroe Street, Chicago, 



A New-Subscriber Offer. 



A bona fide, new subscriber sending us %a will receive for that 

 sum the Forest and Sibeam one year (price §4) and a set of 

 Zimmerman's famous "Ducking Scenes" (advertised on another 

 page, price $5)— a §9 value for $5. 



This oifer is to new subscribers only. It does ■not opplj/ to 

 renewals. 



For $3 a Tiona fide new subscriber for sis months will receive the 

 Forest and Stream during that time and a copy of Dr. Van 



leet'a handsome work, "Bird Portraits for the Young'' (the 

 price of which is S3). 



The Iron Nancy Hanks. 



Thb Empire State Espress ig the Nancy Hanks of the rails. On 

 Thursday sf'e left Rochester forBufEaln, and for ten miles kept 

 up a speed of ninety-five miles an hour. This was done under un- 

 favorable conditions, the road having at that part the heaviest 

 grade on the whole Central system. The entire distance from 

 TJoohester to Buffalo, sixty-nine miles, was made in seventy -one 

 minutes,— T/ie Budget. 



