Jan. ii, 1880.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
81 
The number of visitors to the great forest is enlarging 
each year, and though the game would be greatly in- 
creased at the end of the period of years the slaughter by 
the vast army of hunters would be correspondingly larger 
when it did begin, and in a few years we would again 
find ourselves in the same condition as at present. It is 
urged by many that it is inexpedient to increase the 
number of deer very much because it is difficult for those 
now existing to obtain feed enough through the winter 
to keep them from starvation. If this is so, the entire 
prohibition of shooting for a period of years would at first 
increase the game only to result in a couple of years in 
starvation for a great proportion. This would be an 
added point^for my argument that shooting should not be 
prohibited, but that hounding and floating should be 
abolished. However, it seems a very pertinent question 
to ask why theyastly greater proportion of game in Canada 
and Maine is not decreased more by starvation. Is there 
more feed there proportionately than in the forests of 
New York? 
Of course I can understand very readily why some of 
the hotel men wish to have hounding and floating con- 
tinued, as they fear that the number of visitors to the 
woods will fall off if they cannot offer inducements to 
the effect that by these lazy and easy methods their guests 
can obtain their game. However, these very hotel men 
are near-sighted, inasmuch as they are looking only at 
next season instead of into the seasons to come after 
that. 
I have noticed that some are in favor of making the 
open season begin a month or more later. This would be 
a discrimination against the summer visitor and in favor 
of the natives, and while hounding was permitted would 
hardly be a very efficient measure. 
The unsportsmanlike use of shotguns for deer hunting, 
resulting in a large amount of wounded game which suc- 
ceeds in escaping the hunter, is to be deplored. 
I understand that the lumbermen butcher a great deal 
of game during the winter when it is unable to escape 
because of the deep snow. Can any one give any figures 
concerning this? Francis E. Oliver. 
Syracuse, N. Y,, Jan. 3. 
Canton, N. Y., Jan. 1.— Editor Forest and Stream: It 
was with considerable interest that I read, under title of 
"Adirondack Deer" in your issue of 4th inst., that just 
5,083 deer were killed during the open season just passed, 
and that certain amendments to the game laws would 
aid preservation. I do not know how many deer were 
killed, nor do I think anyone else does; nor do I think 
anyone knows what proportion of those killed were of 
either sex. But, Mr. Editor, whatever the number, it 
seems to me that the remedy proposed is worse than use- 
less. It is not new laws, not more stringent laws, not a 
shorter open season that we need, but a larger force of 
protectors during the months of May, June, July and 
August, and the law enforced as it is. 
It is common report that most of the summer hotels 
have "mountain mutton" any time after May 15. It is 
well understood that most parties who go into the woods 
on a fishing trip in May or June kill one or more deer 
"just for camp use." Many parties go in the woods in 
July because they cannot leave their business later in the 
season (?), and many others go in a few days before the 
open season begins so as to get camp established by the time 
the law is off. A few are honest, but for the most part 
these latter two classes go when they do simply to get the 
start of the honest man, who waits for the open season. 
To postpone the opening of the season until Sept. 10 
is simply to play into their hands, and isn't this a perti- 
nent question: How many men who are now law-abiding 
will join their ranks if they find their legal right to kill 
cut off for the only part of the season that is enjoyable? 
Schools begin about Sept. 1. To have the open season 
begin so late as Sept. 10 makes in facta close season all the 
year for teachers, students and parents who have to be at 
home during the school year. After Sept. 10 we often 
get cold, bad weather, and no one but the woodsman 
cares to be in the woods. I want to take my family with 
me. They enjoy the camp and the woods as much as I 
do, and I want to be able to kill a deer for camp use and 
to do it without breaking any law. 
No, do not amend the law; enforce it as it is; and to do 
so you must have more than one protector to each 1,000 
square miles. 
I would suggest this: Let the chief protector be 
authorized to appoint 100 special deputies to serve from 
May 15 till Aug. 15, say at a salary of $50 per month, the 
State to have all fines. Suppose the fines to equal the 
costs of prosecution, then this protection costs the State 
$15,000. If the deer are not worth that sum better let 
them go. Let the appointments be made secretly and 
kept secret. Let the chief and regular protectors see that 
these specials are on duty all the time. The party who 
wants a deer in May, the ones who go in July, will not 
dare get it, as for all they may know their own guide is a 
"special" protector. With 100 unknown protectors rang- 
ing the Adirondacks from May 15 until the open season 
begins there will be a wonderful diminution in the num- 
ber of deer killed for the entire season. 
I have hunted deer more or less for thirty-seven years. 
I have a considerable acquaintance among guides and 
hunters, I won't say sportsmen, in this part of the State. 
I know many honest citizens who do not think it any 
crime to violate the game law by killing a deer in July or 
early in August. No one will complain of these men 
unless it be a game protector or a neighbor who has a 
grudge to work out. The former is never around, for the 
simple reason that he cannot be in every part of his 1,000 
square mile district at the same time. Did you ever cross 
a field where the grasshoppers were plenty? How they 
rise up in your path, eluding your grasp, if you want 
them for "bait," but settle down just behind you the same 
as if you had not been there. Did you ever paddle along 
a stream in midsummer and note the frantic efforts of 
each and every frog just ahead of you to make the most 
noise, and his equal anxiety to keep still when you get 
opposite him? So the known protector can travel days 
and weeks, well knowing that hoppers and frogs are 
plenty and yet never catching more than the occasional 
one. 
When the "neighbor with a grudge" makes complaint 
the attorney for the defense makes the moat of the grudge 
feature and the prosecution starts out handicapped. The 
average juryman argues "What harm if this man did kill 
a deer out of season, he did no real harm, this other man 
ornplained of him just to be mean, and I won't help him 
work out his grudge unless the evidence is so clear that I 
cannot help myself," and he will vote "not guilty" if there 
is any possible excuse for so doing. With the unknown 
protector upon his track the would-be deer slayer will, for 
the most part, postpone his little game until the open sea- 
son begins, and my word for it, you can cut the season's 
kill right in the middle as the result. , 
Why not try it for one year at least? J. H. R. 
Editor Forest and Stream: I 
The mere killing of 5,083 deer by hunters in the 
Adirondacks last fall is not in itself an indication that the 
deer are going to be exterminated next season or in forty 
years for that matter. The question is, Are there enough 
breeders to keep up the supply so that next fall there will 
be as many deer to begin with as there were last fall? 
It is to be hoped that there are, but there is a stand- 
ing doubt that there are not, and that being the case there 
is but one way to be taken, and that is to 1 chain up the 
hounds — the safe side. 
Four-fifths of those deer were killed ahead of dogs, and 
I haven't any doubt but a good share of them literally 
went to the dogs as well, sa,ve a few choice portions. 
Whether the dogs got the meat or not don't matter, the 
deer were dead and might as well be eaten by appreciative 
dogs as by men. 
Hunting with firearms to kill game is the cruelest sport 
allowed by humanity, but it is growing more refined 
eveiy day. The shots sportsmen are proudest of are those 
that killed clean or instantly. A mortally wounded deer 
chased by dogs runs often far away and is lost; but an 
unwounded deer is as pitiful an object when swimming 
in a lake or river, striving in vain to reach the far shore 
while behind come men in a boat. The deer is absolutely 
helpless once it is beyond its depth and the hunters in a 
boat are after it. It is as easy and as manly to beat a 
deer to death under such circumstances as it is to shoot it 
to death with a rifle. In fact the club is a surer and a less 
painful way of killing game, as anyone who was ever 
knocked senseless with a club and has cut himself with 
a blade of grass, or paper or tin, knows. A law which 
allows deer to be driven to water by dogs is a disgrace, for 
it allows and necessarily promotes the killing of deer in 
this brutal fashion. 
A law that allows hounding of deer defeats the law it- 
self, for it is a fact that the best dogs for trailing deer are 
those that have sucked the blood from a deer's throat 
when the snow was 5 ft. deep and the deer helpless in 
yards. There is a common expression said when a young 
hound has showed skill in running rabbits. It is, "Wait 
till he's been a-crustin' of deer!" 
True, the letter of the law forbids such a practice, but 
it is done to satisfy the demands of those men who must 
have a "sure" or "true" dog— a dog that will put a deer 
into "big water." Where is there "big water" in the 
Adirondacks during the hounding period that has not its 
quota of men day by day waiting for the deer? It is the 
untrue dog that does not follow a deer across the brooks 
and lesser creeks. These are common, but when a "true 
dog" gets after deer 99-100ths of those deer die. The fool 
dogs lose trails, and so it is possible for a deer to be run by 
dogs several times and escape for a while. 
I once saw a big old buck driven by one of the "true 
dogs" to the water. He was gasping when he got down 
there, but when he saw that the forms of men rose about 
him he did not stop to drink. The water was about a foot 
deep for several yards— ten or fifteen — out, but that deer 
crawled along on the bottom, trying to make the water 
shield him from the bullets raining down on his body. I 
would like to ask any one if that deer did not realize that 
death stared him in the face, and if that deer did not suf- 
fer as much as most men would when facing such a cruel 
and ignoble death— dishonorable to the killer and terrible 
to the killed? 
The twelve men with twelve dogs, of which Mr. Allen 
kindly gave us the details, did have too many dogs— just 
an even dozen too many. Raymond S. Spears. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 
MISSIONARY GUIDES. 
Not long ago I met a Western man who makes a busi- 
ness of outfitting and guiding big-game hunters from 
the East. I fancy he must be a good man and a success- 
ful hunter. Certainly the parties that he takes with him 
have good luck. In one season recently he said that he 
had seen twenty -seven bears, which shows that bears are 
abundant in the country that he hunts in, and that he 
understands how to find them. This man struck me as 
peculiar in many , ways, for he has ways of thinking 
which are much more intelligent thain those usually pre- 
vailing among hunters in the mountains. When he is 
out with a hunting party he never carries a gun. He 
takes the responsibility of finding the game and bringing 
the hunter within easy thooting distance. There, in his 
opinion, his responsibility ends. If the man he has with 
him cannot kill the game that is his fault. The 
guide does not help him to do the killing. He 
understands that as long as he is in the business 
of taking out hunting parties, it is for his ad- 
vantage that the game should be abundant, and he 
feels a real regret over every head that is killed. Besides 
this, by quiet talks about the camp-fire at night he en- 
deavors to make the men with whom he is associated see 
what a grave mistake it is to indulge in the indiscriminate 
killing which a few years ago used to be so common 
among Eastern men who went out West for the first 
time. He seems to be doing good missionary work in this 
way. 
This man told me that in his opinion game about the 
borders of the Yellowstone National Park had consider- 
ably increased during the last few years. This remark 
applies especially to elk, which have been less hunted for 
the market lately than for some years. At present the 
Montana law forbids the killing of elk and moose for a 
period of ten years, but of course this law is but little 
regarded. Old Man. 
Wild Turkeys. 
There are very few places in this country to-day where 
good wild turkey shooting may be had, and the noble 
bird already has come to be classed as rare game. At 
Avoca, N. O, however, turkeys are very abundant this 
season, and Dr. Capehart writes that there are 100 within 
two miles of his house. My young friends William Cape- 
hart and Ned Wood were out Dec. 33 and killed four wild 
turkeys. The following morning they got another. All 
were gobblers. These boys are about 15 years of age, but 
as good sportsmen and entertaining companions as one 
could desire. Dr. Capehart carefully preserves 10,000 
acres of land, which accounts for the abundance of game. 
J. B. Burnham. 
NATIONAL GAME, BIRD AND FISH 
PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION. 
Office of the Secretary, Kalamazoo, Mich.— The 
annual meeting of the National Game, Bird and Fish Pro- 
tective Association has been adjourned from Jan. 9 to Feb. 
12, 1890, at 10 o'clock A, M., at Sherman House Club 
Rooms, Chicago, 111. By order of Executive Committee. 
M. R. Bortree, President. 
F. S. Baird, Chairman. 
A. L. Lakey, Secretary. 
This action was taken because many business men could 
not attend the meeting so early in July. 
There is much said and seemingly much interest taken 
the matter of Game and Fish Protection, yet there seems 
to be a feeling with many, that some one besides them- 
selves should do all there is to be done to accomplish this 
great work, as shown by the small attendance at most of 
our State as well as the national meetings. 
Who is it that makes up the powerful lobbies in our 
State legislative halls? Is it the lovers of field and stream 
sports, or is it composed of those whose only object is 
self, and all they desire is the money they can make out 
of the general destruction, and very soon the total anni- 
hilation of all the game and fish in our country? 
How can we best check and in a great degree stop this 
hellish ivorh is the main object of our National Associa- 
tion. Will you lend your influence, your voice, your 
presence at the Annual National meeting, and if neces- 
sary your money, to help in this most important work of 
protection, at the proper time, to all game and fish? 
Notice is hereby given that several changes in the con- 
stitution will be presented at above meeting. 
Don't fail to attend the meeting, Feb. 12, 1896, at 
Chicago. A. L. Lakey, Sec'y. 
Information Blank 
For National Game, Bird and Fish Protective Association. 
Give your opinion on the following subjects, and also 
on any others that will in your opinion advance the cause 
of better protection to our Game and Fish: 
1st. What should constitute the National Game and 
Fish Protective Association membership? 
2d. In what way can the National Association best 
advance the interests of Game and Fish protection? 
3d. What does National protection mean? 
4th. Who are the true sportsmen? What is their ob- 
ject and chief delight? 
5th. Who are the pot and market hunters? What is 
their object and chief delight? 
6th. Would a uniform license law assist in Game and 
Fish protection? If so, how can it be best obtained and 
enforced? 
7th. Why not prohibit all spring shooting? 
8th. Should Nation and State preservers be established 
and maintained by the National and States governments? 
9th. Should the sale of game and game fish be prohib- 
ited at all times or only in the closed seasons? 
10th. Should we not have national Game and Fish war- 
dens appointed and maintained by the national govern- 
ment? 
11th. What is the best system for State or district War- 
dens? 
Asking for Light. 
San Antonio, Tex., Dec. lb— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Can some one of your readers enlighten me as 
to whether I am to be classed as a "game hog" or not? 
From the letters under the head of "Sportsmanship" I am 
at a loss to tell. 
First, let me say that in the particular portion of the 
State in which I was born and passed most of my life, 
from the point of view of most of the writers under this 
head we were all only half civilized; for, did we not get 
into our pirogues on frosty mornings, and paddling down 
some swampy bayou, get near enough after many disap- 
pointments to a flock of ducks, and fire one barrel into 
them in the water, giving them the other as they rose? 
Then if the cap had not slipped from its place and the 
gun snapped, we would get out on the bank and laborir 
ously load with our half-frozen fingers the old muzzle- 
loader and try again. Often we would return home 
empty-handed, the first discharge having been made in a 
moment of excitement, for firing a gun that is as likely 
to have 5 as 3drs. of powder in it in a pirogue doesn't 
always mean game. In fact, it oftener means wet pow- 
der. Then we went fishing usually in the same bayou, 
and we would "heave out over our heads" a dozen or so 
perch. 
We killed deer with the jack lamp. We sailed up and 
down the coast in luggers, and caught fish in seines. But 
it was our faulc. We were totally ignorant of the re- 
peating shotgun, the rod and reel and its accompani- 
ment of flies, etc. Just about this time I became a regular 
subscriber to Forest and Stream and "got on to new- 
fangled ideas." Then I purchased a lot of rods, reels, 
flies, etc.; but my "bringing up" was too much for me 
and they were all discarded save the rods which were 
used to "heave up" perch. 
Often three or four of us would take one of our skiffs 
(made of three planks) and, packing up our duffle, go into 
camp for a few weeks on some of the bayous that 
emptied into the bays of the coast. There we would hunt 
and fish in the above-mentioned style. We killed what 
we wanted in any style that we could, but we killed no 
more than we used. We shot no game out of season. 
Are we to be called barbarians because we were told 
this was the proper way of doing things, because we 
learned new ideas of such things so late that we were 
unable to profit thereby? When I admit that the desire 
to go out comes to me now, not to go out with the new 
style outfit, but just as we used to go, am I putting my- 
self among the list of the "game hogs?" Because when 
I try to cast a line with a reel I am just as likely to catch 
myself by the back as be successful in my cast, am I no 
sportsman? Cats. 
The Forkst and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday and as much earlier as practicable 
