118 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. §, 1896. 
ON HUNTING ISLAND. 
Col T. G. White contributes to the Charleston News 
and Courier this account of a recent hunt on Hunting 
Island, near Beaufort, 8. C. : Decidedly the best and 
most elaborately appointed hunt of the season is that of 
the hunters on Hunting Mand this week, from which the 
hunters have just returned, bringing with them nine 
splendid deer as the result of their week's sport. 
Last Monday morning Matthew O. D. White, John 
Wallace, Major W. H. Lockwood, Capt. H. D. Elliott, 
D. Mabie, J. Berrien Walker, C. E Danner, H. T. Danner, 
W. P. Sanders, W. H. Burn, Dr. C. G. Richardson and 
Dr. Berryhill, surgeon at the naval station, set out in the 
steamer Lorena, Capt. Vaden, for a week's outing. 
The party landed at Fripp's Inlet and reached their 
selected spot for encampment on Monday afternoon. 
They carried with them six commodious wall tents and a 
bountiful supply of bedding and other necessaries. The 
cry of hounds was a magnificent one of fifteen dogs, 
headed by Matthew White's famous hound Christian, 
and other dogs of great scent from the packs of J. B. 
Walker, John Wallace, and W. F. Sanders and others. 
With the experience of old Confederate veterans like 
W. H. Burn, formerly of the Brooks Guard, and Capt. 
H. D. Elliott, and Dr. Berryhill, an old officer of the 
United States army, the tents were soon pitched, and the 
evening consumed in trying the ducks. At an early hour 
the next morning the series of chases commenced and 
between Tuesday and Friday night Mr, Walker had 
killed two superb bucks, Mr. Mabie had secured one, John 
Wallace had killed two, Dr. Richardson downed one, 
Matt White shot one, and W. H. Burn scored one, and 
the ninth deer one of the colored drivers, Joe Roberts, 
brought down on the drive. 
Altogether the hunt is pronounced one of tha most suc- 
cessful and enjoyable undertaken in .many years. Dr. 
Berryhill, an old army officer and an old hunter, with 
experiences in hunts in the Adirondacks and in Alaska 
and the far West, says it is the most delightful and inter- 
esting outing he has ever experienced and he had never 
been on one where so many deer were killed in the same 
time. 
The weather was unfavorable, wet and rainy for two 
days during the week, and five of the deer were killed 
yesterday, the last day of the hunt. 
Mr. Walker had the misfortune to smash his elegant 
Parker gun stock upon the second buck he shot; it beiDg 
wounded by his first barrel and crippled by his second, 
when apprehending its escape he belabored the deer with 
the butt of his weapon. 
The negro drivers and cooks who accompanied the 
party were veterans in the chase. Sam Jenkins, Dennis 
Freeman, Joe Roberts, Joe Danner, Aleck Key, Willie 
Freeman and John Freeman, names well recognized by 
our old-time hunters, contributed to the entertainment of 
the party by their unique experiences related in their 
native gullah. 
Dr. Berryhill, beside being a most charming and ac- 
complished gentleman, is a thorough musician, and with 
his banjo entertained the party around the camp-fires. 
The nine huge carcasses, mostly of huge bucks with 
spreading antlers, as they were loaded in a cart to be 
butchered, were a sight that commanded general admira- 
tion. At this season the bucks are in what is known as 
the "blue skin," and as they dash through the covert look 
blue; while in the months of July and August, the best 
season by the bye for fat bucks, they are in the "red Bkin" 
and the color of autumn leaves. 
The hunters say that the islands are filled with deer, 
owing to the close watch that was put upon them against 
marauders by the Beaufort Hunting Club, who have 
secured them as a hunting ground. T. G. W. 
NON-RESIDENTS AND LAWLESS CITI- 
ZENS. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In former communications I have contended that deer 
were in more danger of extermination from violations of 
the law by resident hunters than from the influx of non- 
residents. What I said was largely in self-defense, and 
applied to the States of Michigan and Wisconsin, where I 
have spent many happy days wandering in the evergreen 
forests. 
I want to be understood as finding no fault with any 
one except those who accuse me, with other unfortunate 
non-residents, of doing things we were not guilty of. I 
have found among the forest residents of those States 
whole-souled hospitality and a friendship that is reliable. 
But there are "game hogs" in and out of the hunting ter- 
ritory, and they grunt in a mischievous way sometimes. 
I inclose herewith a letter from a gentleman I met last 
fall in northern Wisconsin. He speaks the sentiment of 
the average pettier or citizen of the northern portion of the 
State. You have permission to publish what he has to 
say touching game and fish protection. 
G. W. Cunningham. 
The letter to Mr. Cunningham reads: 
I would not favor a non-resident license law, nor any 
law that would hinder in any way a sportsman from 
hunting in Wisconsin in season, no matter in what part 
of the Union his home might be. 
My opinion is that the game supply is decreasing. This 
is my observation in an experience of six years past in the 
woods and in a deer country. In giving my reasons for 
so thinking I shall answer your third question, which was: 
"Are the deer in more danger from native hunters who 
hunt out of season than from hunters of other S dur- 
ing the open season?" 
In the first place, the law of our State is not enfoi 
The only time of the year that deer are not slaughter^ 
is when they are too poor to be eaten. There are towns 
which I could name where venison has been peddled on 
the street from house to house for the last three months. 
This is done mostly by the Indians. A great many deer, 
too, are killed in June and July and during the greater 
part of August by shining. A bull6eye lantern is used for 
this, being suspended from the boat. The method is a 
favorite one for many, for it is so easy, and if they under- 
stand it at all they are sure to get deer. Being in one of 
our little towns last July and seeing a man I knew to be 
an old shiner, I asked him if there were many deer being 
killed around there. "Well," said he, "until about two 
weeks ago there were a good many, but the shiners over- 
did the matter and shined the lakes to death. I and one 
of our neighbors got a team yesterday and hauled my 
boat to a lake which is three miles from town, where we 
thought we would be sure to find a place where the deer 
had not been bothered. By the time it was dark enough 
to shine there were so many lights on the lake that we 
left and came home. It is not safe to be out nights on 
the water. A man is liable to get shot." 
I have told this to show how extensively shining is car- 
ried on. This is done altogether by white men, but not 
altogether by natives, for I have known men from other 
States who tried their hand at shining too. 
Whenever we get deep snow, deep enough to make it 
hard for the deer to travel, white men and Indians both 
run them down on snowshoes. When you were here you 
saw how men of our own State run deer with dogs in 
such a free and high handed way that you would hardly 
imagine that there was a law against it. It would be a 
wonder if deer should hold their own against all this. If 
we would or could enforce the laws we have now and let 
every one hunt in season who wishes to, I am sure that 
there would be plenty of deer for a great many years to 
come. 
There is only one provision I would be in favor of add- 
ing to our game laws, and that is to prohibit the sale of 
game of all kinds. 
The snow here is about 16in. deep, and the ice on the 
lake is about as thick as the snow is deep. Oar boys go 
to school every day with their dog team. They have made 
the four miles in twenty-eight minutes. 
To illustrate how the game laws are enforced in north- 
ern Wisconsin, I went down to M, last Friday, and on 
one lake in sight of the town from the car window I 
counted six little houses built on the ice to spear from, yet 
our law forbids fish spearing at any time. 
THE ADIRONDACK DEER SUPPLY. 
Schroon Lake, Adirondacks. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: To allay any susp cion on the part of my readers, I 
will state that I am not a guide and that I do not make 
my livelihood by hunting deer. 
In the articles which appear from time to time in the 
sporting journals of the day, there appears to be a strange 
lack of familiarity with the conditions of deer hunting in 
the Adirondacks on the part of the writers. 
Hounding of deer is spoken of as a "slaughter of inno- 
cents." One dead deer to sixteen good starts is consid- 
ered the fair ratio for computing your chances on a day's 
hunt. Two starts is considered a good day's work for the 
starters on their part, which gives you a deer for eight 
days' hunting of say six men and three dogs. This is 
what is called "slaughter." 
I hunted twenty-four days during the hunting season 
of last fall; there was a party of seven of us; we killed 
eight deer, and considered ourselves in luck. But on 
comparison, you see, it is an average of one deer to a man 
for twenty-one days' hunting. Twenty-one days uses up 
pretty nearly all of a year's hunting season, and after a 
man has hunted twenty days without success and on the 
twenty-first day brings down his first deer of the season, 
he does not feel like a "slaughterer of innocents" in the 
sense in which that term would be used when applied to 
a participator in the Armenian atrocities. P. S. R, 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
So much has been said of late as to the scarcity of deer 
in the Adirondacks, I would like to express an opinion 
through the columns of your valuable paper relative to 
the same. I own property in Hamilton county, N. Y., 
on the shore of Lake Piseco, and besides rent a large 
tract, which is probably as good feeding ground for deer 
as any in the Empire State. Indeed, I think figures will 
bear me out in saying that more deer have been killed in 
Hamilton county than any county in the Adirondacks 
for the past three years. Now as to the scarcity of deer, 
this cry of no deer, or a great reduction in their number, 
in my opinion is all bosh. You will remember, Mr. Editor, 
that the Morgan Lumber Company and other similar 
concerns have hundreds of men operating in the West 
Canada section, and that the timber is being cut off down 
to sticks of no more than 5in. in diameter. That a new 
railway has been built through the Adirondacks, which, 
prior to its building, was among the most favored re- 
treats of the deer family; and the deer of that section 
have not been killed off, but have retreated to the more 
remote forest far away from the howling mob, which, 
before the railroad was built, was not enabled to infest 
their feeding grounds, and again the hotels and boarding- 
houses had more city people last year than ever before. 
That every white-coated dude who visits the mountains 
in the summer brings with him a gun or revolver and 
a package of cigarettes [the latter is sufficient to drive 
all the deer into Vermont], and from the time they arrive 
until they leave there is a constant fusillade which ren- 
ders forest and field dangerous to animal life. 
Those who know the nature of the deer well know 
that they seek secluded spots, and the native hunter can 
to-day take you to yards where deer are as plentiful as they 
were ten years ago; but they have moved back into the 
denser wilderness, and when men, sportsmen, will cease 
their eternal howl about hounding and night hunting, 
and spend more time making an effort to preserve our 
forests, shutting out lumber monopolies and securing to 
the deer a suitable dwelling place, unmolested for six 
months in the year at least, they will see for themselves 
that deer are more numerous in Hamilton County than 
sheep. 
Now, to prove my statements: in the rear of my sum- 
mer residence on Piseco is a "fly," or a low marshy bog; 
not more than fifty rods from the house this opening is 
sarrounded by timber, and has a stream of pure water 
running through it — an ideal place for deer. My man, 
^.ho has charge of the place during the winter months, 
probably does not discharge a gun twice a year outside of 
the hunting season; the place is quiet and up to the time 
the summer boarders commence tj come in I am sure 
it is safe to say that in that immediate vicinity there are 
not less than twenty deer. 
Mr, Charles Baldwin and wife, of Brooklyn, came to 
"Spring Knoll Lodge" the early part of June last year, 
and remained a month; during that time they both saw 
no less than ten deer feeding in the open fields and in 
the edge of the timber; and they were not the same deer 
seen at different times. Bslow "Spring Knoll Lodge" it 
was a morning custom of a family of three deer to cross 
the open fields and go down to the lake shore to drink 
for about six weeks; but after the city people came and 
thenever-ceasing target practice commenced, and parties 
out upon the lake shouting, and camp-fires built through 
the woods, the deer moved, nor did they return till after 
the closed season. 
There are just as many deer to-day in the Adirondacks 
as there were five years ago, and during the closed season 
just as easy to get at; but when the rabble commences 
next season, they will go back to the more inaccessible parts 
of the forest, and by virtue of a few disappointed city pot- 
hunters going home empty handed there will be a cry of 
no deer. But through the open season look into the lard- 
er of the native sportsman ; there you will find venison 
and, if you are willing to make the effort and pay for it, 
he will show you deer to your astonishment. Timothy 
Crowley, a Piseco guide, and myself surprised four, in one 
bunch, one night last summer in a locality where other 
guides said there were no deer. It is a mistake to attribute 
the apparent scarcity to hounding or night hunting. 
In my opinion, if the timber be preserved and the land 
sharks kept out, the Adirondacks would always afford 
ample material for the sportsman's rod and gun. 
William H. Hacker, M. D. 
Providence, R. I. 
AN ADIRONDACK ELEGY. 
Port Richmond, Jan. 24. — Editor Forest and Stream, 
I inclose to you a poem composed by Patrick Sheehy, a 
guide and hunter of repute who lived for many yeare 
near Schroon Lake, in the Adirondack Mountains. 
The poem commemorates the death of Old Golden, a 
buck deer of fabulous size and strength which for many 
years eluded the hunters and their dogs, and was at last 
granted immunity from harm out of respect for his great 
size, endurance and beauty. 
As related in the poem, the deer was finally killed by a 
party of visiting sportsmen, to the consternation and sor- 
row of the local hunters, to whom the name of Old Golden 
was a loved one. 
The stories of the many chases after this famous deei 
have become legends in the vicinity of Schroon Lake, and 
are related by Samuel Sanders and Edward Jenks, who 
a3 young men had the honor of hunting the deer. 
The poem was recited to me by Patrick Sheehy, Jr., 
himself a famous guide and hunter, and who, at my re- 
quest, presented me with a copy. 
The poem has evident merit and shows that the muse 
had not been wooed in vain by this old hunter-poet. 
Edward Sidney Rawson. 
•in memoriam. 
"BRAVE GOLDEN" OF THE ADIRONDACKS. 
On the Adirondack Mountains, where bracing breezes blow, 
And purling streams dance merrily to valleys down below, 
There buck and doe are daily known to ramble side by side, 
And often cross the hunter's path, which fills his beart with pride. 
Both grandeur and rare beauty in summer cm be seen 
All through those lofty mountain peaks, when clad in fragrant green: 
In lonely glens are verdant glades, where footmen seldom stray; 
It's there wild game do congregate, to romp, to sport, to play. 
There was one deer among them bred, "Brave Golden" called by name: 
Both far and near his fame had spread to be the king of game; 
His spreading antlers and noble form were grand for to behold; 
Each hunter's eye compared his size to a bullock two years old. 
This matchless deer, while young in years, selected,out his range 
Betwixt Mount Pharaoh and Schroon Lake; for this was nothing 
strange. 
He was protector of his herd when stormy winter came. 
Full twenty summers brave and bold he bore his honored name. 
Brave Qolden's keen, discerning eye knew well each road and run. 
To him it was no great surprise to hear the hunter's gun ; 
He seldom looked for refuge to river, pond or lake; 
For he was well shod and mounted a bold defense to make. 
The sportsmen all around Schroon Lake they would not shoot th« 
king, 
Though on his trail the hounds all day would make the valleys ring. 
When night came on he took his stand to hold them all at bay. 
With steel-like feet and spikes of horn they dare not come to play. 
At the foot of Blue Beard Mountain, where fountains spring so free, 
There grows the pine, the beech, the birch and noble maple tree. 
In a low, rich, verdant valley, well shaded from the gale; 
This was the place to meet the king, the hero of our tale. 
Many a well determined shot from strangers passed him by; 
Many a hound and hungry dog their rage he did defy. 
Our noble king had left hi3 f riend3, through which he met his fate. 
The way he was foully dealt with is sad for to relate. 
A party of young gentlemen came north to kill some deer ; 
They did not know Brave Golden was well known to hunters here; 
They struck his track with well-bred dogs and boasted of the same. 
Lo ! soon the king through grove and glen proved both grit and game 
For three long days they chased him o'er hills and mountains high, 
Till hounds and men surrounded him, each moment pressing nigh; 
He seemed to plead for mercy. Alas ! it was in vain; 
He was shot and shed his life's blood on the bosom of Champlain. 
We miss Brave Golden from his herd, we miss bim from his home, 
We miss him from each grove and glen through which the king did 
roam; 
Oar hounds will never strike his track to make the valley ring; 
Tba stranger's cruel, deadly shot laid low our noble king. 
A matchless deer has left thy park, fair Diana of the chase, 
For which sad notes will soar aloft from the harp of old OrpheuB; 
That gifted muse called Melpomene ia doleful notes will sing 
Brave Golden's mournful funeral dirge while we this tribute bring. 
In memory of Brave Golden we pen this last farewell 
From men of game all 'round Schroon Lalse, who knew his fame right 
well, 
The hunter's pride, the noble guide, so faithful to his flock, 
Both one and all we mourn his fall this day upon Watch Rock. 
Babbit Hunters in Trouble. 
Saturday afternoon Henry Mettske, of Second street, 
and William Eisman, of Quail street, were returning from 
Karners on a locomotive, when they were arrested by 
Officer Mason, of the Central-Hudson road, and arraigned 
before Justice Dayton, charged with jumping on trains, 
and each sentenced to ten days in jail. When arrested 
they had in their possession a bag containing three rabbits 
and a ferret. When released they will be arraigned on 
the charge of violation of the game laws.— Albany Arg us. 
