Sept. 30, 1893.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



278 , 



A REPORT FROM MAINE. 



Boston, Mass. — Editor Forest and Stream: We arrived 

 in Ellsworth, Hancock county, Me., Sept. 7, and on mak- 

 ing inquiry as to ruffed grouse and woodcock we were 

 informed that shooting had bepn going on openly for more 

 than a month, and that the doctors, lawyers, merchants, 

 and in fact everybody who had a gun had been shooting 

 game out of season and selling it in open market. Par- 

 tridges brought ,|1.50 per x^air, woodcock $1 each, for Bar 

 Harbor market. 



Now, I want to ask why they have any law in Maine, if 

 a majotity of its citizens care nothing for it. 



Poachers wete found not only in Ellsworth but all 

 tht-oUgh the county^ in Waltham, Amherst, Aurora and 

 itl townships 2l, 22, 28, 16, 10. In those places partridge, 

 T^dodcpck and dhck shootihg Was indulged in as lawlessly 

 aa at Mlswdi-tli— even mote so, for eteryboy has his Win- 

 ch testet—d-nd tilei-e ai-e a large titlmtaef of tfained deer 

 dogs, and dogging deet was orle of the spotts that was 

 practiced every month in the year. At Grreat P*ohd 1 -v^as 

 told by several reliable persons that they killed deer evefy 

 month in the year, and that there had not been a day this 

 summer but that some person could find venison steak at 

 this jjlace. 



In the west branch of Union River, about four miles 

 from Great Pond Village, we found a dead buck, nearly 

 eaten up by bears; at Morrison Pond one more dead deer 

 was found, shot through the body; at Great Pond it was 

 the talk of the place that Senator Hale's son had killed 

 deer out of season ; at Spectacle Pond poachers had been 

 dogging deer more or less all summer; at Alligator Lake 

 deer have been killed otit of season; and at almost eveiy 

 place where we stopped from Ellsworth to Lead Mountain 

 we Were invited to take a deer hunt. Almost every per- 

 6oh ridihg or walking fl-gin Pine Hill to Waltham had a 

 ■Wihchestet with him. ft wai§ open time with them the 

 ^eai: roiindj and at seVetal places where Ave stopped we 

 hiid fried deei- meat. I ti-aveled eight days atid saw but 

 lew indications of deer; ahd ilo liVe ones except one tame 

 one in Atirora. Deel- are dogged so nlubh that they are 

 not so plenty as in mr.st other parts of the State. Betw(?en 

 Blue Hill and Surrey I should judge that deer were plenty. 

 Should not advise sportsmen to go to Hancock county for 

 good shooting, as the deer are being driven from there to 

 other parts of the State. 



Partridge and wnodcock shooting Ls not equal to many 

 places in Connecticut. Trout fishing has been good, 

 tliough they will soon "kill the goose that lays the golden 

 egg" if they continue the use of nets and dynamite bombs. 

 Oaly one person, so far as I could learn, bad been prose- 

 cuted for taking fish unlawfully. If the wardens of the 

 State would see the law enforced for a few years, Hancock 

 county would become the finest hunting and fishing 

 county in the world. Ller immense forests and innumer- 

 able ponds, lakes and streams would become the hunter's 

 paradise. Blobuett. 



TWO BLACKTAIL BUCKS. 



In my journal, Under date of a certain Oct. 10, I find 

 a meraorandilni of an afternoon's hunt on Mt. Zahn, in the 

 far-away Wyotnitig Bad Lands. 



Twice a wi ek the stage left oxlr mail at a little post 

 office eight miles down tlie valley, and Rob or myself rode 

 down after it. When I made the trip I visually left the 

 ranch about noon and went around through the hills in 

 search of black tail deer to fm-nish fresh meat for out 

 larder, and that is what I did on this occasion. The 

 country was very rougli, being cut from north to south by 

 many canons washed deep into the hills. The Bad Lands 

 are a dreary place at best, but they had a peculiar rugged 

 beauty under the warm October sun which would com- 

 mand the admiration of the outdoor man in spite of him- 

 self- , .„ , 



This particular afternoon was warm and still, a drowsy 

 time that makes one feel contented with himself and 

 everything about him, and brings liis nerves into the 

 proper shape to accept everything that may happen as a 

 matter of course, which causes no shock nor disturbs at 

 all his mental inactivity. I remember noticing the con- 

 trast between the sun-cured grass, of a buckskin hue. and 

 the somber blue of the cedar patches, noting the scarlet of 

 the kidlkinick leaves and the bright ochre color of the 

 (jUaking asp thickets, with their delicate tracery of white 

 and brown-bai-ked limbs, which seems to make them 

 cousins of the birch rather than the cottonwood. The 

 fanta-stic lava boulders, too, came in for a share of my 

 mental notes, and I marked the peculiarities of formation 

 and color they displayed as I rode among them, turning 

 this Avav and that to avoid a patcli of prickly pear or 

 thorny soaproot stalk with its daggerlike leaves. I had 

 already ])assed through the best deer country on the route, 

 slippin'g off of my horse where it was too rough to ride, 

 peering with the glass into thickets, across canons, and 

 stealthily gaining a vantage point above a thicket, Indian- 

 like, before showing myself; but had seen no living 

 thing. A big buzzard had startled me mto jerking the 

 Winchester up to my shoulder, by sailing along so his 

 shadow slipped out of sight after giving me just enough of 

 a glimpse of it to know it was something moving before it 

 sailed up the other side of the canon. 



1 had gone through the canon where "there ought to be 

 one" but he wasn't there, so 1 concluded they had all gone 

 across the Little Cottonwood on the other side of Mt. 

 Zahn, where the feed was better, and that I would have 

 to go there for my meat until further notice. This I was 

 so convinced of that I lit my pipe, and lowering my riOe 

 across the saddle pommel let the horse, a trusty hunter, 

 tate his own gait and foUow his own trail toward tlie 

 mail ranch on down the valley. I had jogged along tins 

 Avav for perhaps half a mile before I turned into a small 

 c, fion in order to cross a low pass in the hills at its head 

 and save considerable travel. In foUowmg this ravme I 

 almost walked the horse on top of two big bucks and a 

 doe. The horse snorted and shied "to port," giving me 

 just time enough for a snap shot at the worst scared deer 

 in the hills, and I got him the first crack without having 

 the gun at my shoulder. It was one of those accidents 

 wliich every hunter experiences, but it killed the buck 

 and brought him to grass, shot square through the points 

 of the shoulders, liigh enough to break his spine. The 

 doe ran up the main canon and I paid no more .attention 

 to her but watched the other buck, which ran to the head 

 of the caiion I had started for and then crossed the pass I 

 had intended to use as my road. I cut tlie first one s 

 throat, glanced at the sun , and concluded I would kill 

 the other one too, as the season was late and the meat 

 would "jerk" very nicely and be a good store agamst cold 



Weathef , whefi I couldn't get out into the hills. Accord- 

 ingly 1 fode dp the Canon just about the same course the 

 buck had takdri until 1 got to the pass, then got off and 

 tied the horse, as his hoofs would make too much noise 

 for a member of a scouting party, and went on foot. I 

 leveled the glass, inspecting every foot of the country as 

 it opened up as I advanced, but saw no deer until I 

 brought the lenses to bear on the cedars of a canon head 

 just below me on the hill. Then I saw him, and through 

 the glass could even make out the color of his eyes, he 

 seemed so near. On looking without them I found he 

 was lying down in a bunch of short cedars quite along 

 distance away and down hill, with only his head and neck 

 showing above the brush. It was a hard shot, and I 

 missed him clean as he lay there, but the minute he got 

 up and began to run I began to talk business to him with 

 the Winchester, and three shots convinced him he had no 

 further use for life, so he just lay down and died before I 

 got to him. I now had two dead deer, one on each side of 

 the mountain, and my horse on the top, an awfully rough 

 Country for five miles to the ranch and no pack saddle. I 

 mdst get them in before night or the "loafer" wolves 

 would saVe nie the trouble before morning. I went to work 

 on the last one arid soon had him skinned out without 

 loosening the forequarters or the saddle from the hide, 

 then cut away the tenderloins and flanks from the carcass 

 and rolled them in my "slicker," which I tied behind the 

 sadile. Then I slit "the legs and the skin between the 

 lower jaws and passed my "riata" through the whole busi- 

 ness, bunching it in convenient form for hanging over the 

 saddle horn. The first one killed was served in the same 

 way, and one was suspended on each side. The sun by 

 this time was nearly down and I still had a rough road to 

 tra^'el before reaching the trail for home, which lay about 

 a mile to the south. It would take too much space to tell 

 how the horns would slip around and "jab" my horse 

 when he went down hill, and how he bucked every time 

 they did, how the pack got misplaced and had to be fixed 

 over and over, how the big gray "loafer" wolves smeUed 

 the fresh blood and serenaded me all the way home, circl- 

 ing and gliding around like phantoms in the white moon- 

 light all too close for comfort, and how young Rob, wdio 

 Was a tenderfoot, thought Sitting Bull had hung another 

 scalp at his belti for it was just before the Woimded Knee 

 fight and we were In "Injun country." However, I got 

 in at 11 o'clock that night safe with my meat but utterly 

 worn out with the tramp. El Comancho. 

 Beatrice, Neb. 



Susquehanna Notes. 



Camp Hummel, Bainbridge, Pa., Sept. We, the un- 

 dersigned, are ranged along the platform of the Pennsyl- 

 vania railroad station, waiting for the east-bound train to 

 Lancaster, having just broken a successful week's camp 

 on the foot of the island opposite this town. For the past 

 four days the river has been in fair condition. We have 

 managed to take a few bass, have seen other fellows take 

 more than we, and we have had a royal good time. Our 

 commissary department excelled, far surpassing the or- 

 dinary, aided by unusually good melons from Hummel's 

 island field. Yours faithfully, Galbraith, Griel, Jeflries, 

 Schmim, Schupp, Tomlin, Megeehen, Rhoades, Eberman, 

 Trissler and Martin. 



Sept. 13.— Parties just leaving here for Reading, Pa., 

 with hampers packed full of bass. Several rods have 

 averaged 10 fish to the rod, three days' fishing. Bait 

 brought along, mostly small catfish. To-day Kuntzelman 

 tried flannel rag on spoon as a lure for pike perch; one 

 strike, no fish. 



Sept. 13— Doyle found three small "salmon." Barney 

 says they are not biting freely, and "I'll be hanged if I 

 understand it." George Ashton says "they're too thun- 

 derin' lightning sharp." 



On Sept. 2, and for several days, the river at this point 

 was black with coal culm; it is a wonder that any fish are 

 left. At Steelton and on the opposite side of the river 

 tons of coal have been taken from the bed of the river 

 during the extremely low water this summer. It seems 

 incredible that such quantities of coal could be washed 

 dovA'n for so great a distance; a great deal of it is chestnut 

 size. 



Squire Bare tells me that hardly ever before in his ex- 

 perience has the river been so low as during the present 

 summer. 



On Sept. 14, going down the Port Deposit road from 

 Columbia, many rods were noticed on the river; from 

 McCall's Ferry to Fife's Eddy they were literally thick. 

 Many good strings of bass have been taken along this 

 portion of the river during the present season. Bakt. 



Rochester Doings. 



Rochester, N. Y.— Messrs. J. C. Hart and C. H. Bab- 

 cock have gone to Idaho for a month's shooting on big 

 game and birds. C. A. Hayden and W. S. Kimball have 

 returned from a week with the wildfowl at Cunituck, 

 Chesapeake Bay. It is fair to presume that Mr. Kim- 

 ball's Chesapeake Bay dog Drake had several oppor- 

 tunitits to show his training and dehght his owner. 



Mr. and Mrs. Martm Cook are at Stony Lake, Canada, 

 for the bass fishing and ozone. Mr. Lawrence Davis is at 

 Clear Lake, Canada, and we have positive evidence that 

 his bait has proved a killing one, said evidence being four 

 bass of good weight. 



Anglers reiDort an imjirovement in the fishing at Iron- 

 dequoit Bay this month, some very good catches of bass, 

 lake perch and pickerel having been made. It is certain 

 that when the great east side sewer is completed and the 

 sewage which now goes into the bay is diverted into the 

 riverTthat the bay will aft'ord the best fishing in this 

 section, being as well the most pleasant \Aa.CB easily 

 accessible to Rochesterians. 0. S. Ber. 



[We imagine that the wildfowl pursued by Messrs. 

 Hayden and Kimball were bay birds, since the wildfowl 

 (duck, goose, etc.) season does not open in North Carolina 

 tni Nov! lO.J 



Poaching in Ontario. 



Belleville, Sejjt. 18. — A "sport" — not a sportsman — 

 from Albany, in your country and State, lately invaded 

 our territory and deliberately broke our laws by killing a 

 moose in the Mattama District. The occurrence was pub- 

 lished in the Brock ville Recorder of the 7th inst. without 

 a word of reproof, but more may come of it, as I have, 

 through Mr. H. K. Smith, our local warden, called the 

 attention of Mr. A. D. Stewart, chief warden, to the mat- 

 ter Mr. Stewart is already at work on the case, 



R. S. B. 



A 'LONG SHORE ACCIDENT. 



The readers of the Forest and Stream have often seen 

 the name of Mr. Claude H. Tarbox, of the Boston Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, mentioned as a good shot and a lover 

 of fishing. They will be interested to know that the 

 same gentleman himself has been shot. But he is yet 

 ahve and really but little htrrt. His brother-in-law, J. 

 Orin Bailey, also a good shot and a lover of woods and 

 water sports, though having but one leg to get about on, 

 was gunning with him for shore birds the other day. 

 Let me say "right here that the nature of the accident is 

 the only good reason for telling about it, in order that 

 other gunners may avoid exactly the same thing. They 

 ambushed behind 'some rocks up quite a distance from 

 the shore. Mr. Tarbox had abeady had good luck, hav- 

 ing taken four black ducks out of a flock of six. They 

 had a plover for a decoy, down on the shore some dis- 

 tance in front of them. '.They were also whistling for 

 the occasional plover that flew past, and making some 

 good shots. At length Mr. Tarbox got tired of his posi- 

 tion and suggested that he would walk along the shore, 

 partially concealed by some low bushes from his com- 

 panion up in the rocks. As he was walking past the 

 rocks a plover whistled, and he and Mr. Bailey both 

 called. The bird circled around and was coming down 

 evidently. Mr. Tarbox crouched partially behind the 

 brush. Just then another gunner had passed up the 

 shore, suggesting to Mr. Tarbox that he would not stop to 

 frighten their birds. The plover came down and Mr. 

 Bailey fired, shooting the bird, but also giving his compan- 

 ion about the full advantage of the scattered and partially 

 spent charge of shot — about No. 8 in size. He received 

 several shot in his hip, where they barely punctured the 

 skin. One shot pierced the upper lid of his right eye, 

 going completely through the lid and striking on the eye- 

 ball, but most fortunately without force enough to punc- 

 ture the eye. Other shot hit Mr. Tarbox in the face, hub 

 were readily picked otit by the doctor. Mr. Bailey was 

 terribly shocked by what he had done. He thought that 

 the other man moving away was his companion, as their 

 shooting coats were of about the same color. He declared 

 that he was done with a gun forever. But Mr. Tarbox is 

 satisfied that he would have done exactly the same thing, 

 under the circumstances, and that the most careful hunter 

 would. He was about his business the next day, though 

 wearing a patch over his eye, which organ is now out of 

 danger. Moral: Always be sure of the location of your 

 companions when gunning in the woods. The above- 

 mentioned gunners had made a splendid bag of birds, 

 when the accident sent them home in a hurry. They had 

 taken the 4 black duck, already mentioned, 13 plover, a 

 ringneck and a peep. The peep they had shot just for 

 luck. But under the circumstances they w-ill scarcely 

 shoot another, though they now think that it was ex- 

 tremely good luck that kept them from consequences 

 more serious. 



L. W. DePass, assistant secretary of the Boston Cham- 

 ber of Commerce, Dr. W. B. Cutter, of the South End, 

 and C. W. Hodgkins, are on a two weeks' gunning trip on 

 the Cape. These gentlemen have shot together for several 

 seasons, and they may be expected to make a good record. 



Special. 



A RANCHMAN'S VIEW. 



Sedalia, Col., Sept. 15. — Editor Forest and Stream: In 

 your issue of Sept. 9 I read "Tenderf ooting in the Rockies" 

 and take the liberty to jot down a few ideas that occurred 

 to me during the perusal of that narrative. 



Already in 1886 there existed in Colorado a law entirely 

 prohibiting the kiUing of beaver. But our learned sages 

 of the law from New York disregarded such laws and killed 

 a beaver in the Elk Mountains. 



The complaint they make about being refused feed for 

 their burros by a ranchwoman shows that ranch people do 

 not care to encourage oafing, and no ordinary ranch peo- 

 ple will be able to distinguish learned sages of the law 

 under the guise of foot travelers with burros. In Colorado 

 in the ranch country a man on foot is looked upon with 

 suspicion. I, for instance, make it a rule never to sell or 

 give away anything at my ranch because I have had the 

 experience that sneak thieves will come in the daytime to 

 buy a few cents' worth of watermelons so as to spot the 

 location and rob the field during the night. I have my 

 land posted with signs, but notwithstanding this people 

 continually trespass to shoot anything from a robin up- 

 ward; game laws and laws of trespass do not exist for the 

 majority of city people, and I cannot wonder at it when 

 New York lawyers will kill game out of season and shoot 

 on inclosed land without previously asking the permission 

 of the land owner. It is to such that the destruction of 

 the game is due. 



I would propose as the best game preserving law to 

 make and enforce strict laws of trespass and to hinder 

 anybody from killing any game without a written permit 

 (to ba paid for) from the land owner, private ovvner, the 

 State as owner of lands, and the U. S. Government as the 

 owner of the Government lands. 



City people may think that crossing inclosed land, 

 although trespass according to the la\v, does not damage 

 the proprietor. I say it is not for tliem to judge; they 

 ought to obey the law, because they may cause damage 

 they know nothing of. They shoot promiscuously, and in 

 hilly country they shoot live stock without seeing them. 

 Another instance: When ranchmen keep in their pasture 

 range beef steers that hardly ever saw anybody on foot, 

 they may get so stampeded by the sight of a pedestrian as 

 to break through the fences and be lost, for that season 

 at least, when the small profit the ranchman depends on 

 for a living is gone. I should therefore advise aU sages of 

 the law that may like to travel, to stand up as models to 

 the average of niortals by more strictly and literally obey- 

 ing the laws of the countiy through which they pass with- 

 out all the time trying to argue within themselves about 

 the intention of the law giver and taking upon themselves 

 to judge if, and when, they cause damage by trespass or not. 



I like to travel myself and like to see others enjoy trav- 

 eling. I would like to be able to be hospitable to every 

 traveler, but I might easily gather about me all the tramps 

 in the country and never enjoy the pleasure of welcom- 

 ing congenial people, therefore if I am like others, inhos- 

 pitable, it is owing to circumstances, not to choice. I 

 think that when the day comes that every educated man 

 will lay particular stress on the strict obedience to the 

 law, beginning by doing so himself, lower class people 

 will recognize an educated man as such and treat him ac- 

 cordingly. Ranchman. 



