April 11, 1896^ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
298 
The Swedes are very enthusiastic over the prospects. 
They are very much interested and say now that there is 
no doubt of the success of the enterprise. They have 
seen the birds a number of times and are exercising the 
closest police surveillance that they may not be destroyed. 
The birds have been seen ' budding ' on the trees, appar- 
ently as contented and strong as though raised on the 
soil where located." 
There would seem to be no reason why these valuable 
grouse, having survived their voyage over the ocean and 
their first month — the hard month of March — in the 
Maine woods, should not continue to thrive and to breed 
and multiply. They will be heard from often during the 
breeding season. In the early dawn of the bright spring 
mornings, the cocks of both species, perched on some 
lofty pine or birch of the forest, call the dames of their 
harem around them with a beautiful, oft-repeated love 
song. Indeed, the black game pours forth his liquid 
flute-like trills with a beauty and melody that would 
cause Melba herself to blush with envy. 
Having myself enjoyed rare sport with both the caper- 
cailzie and black game in the woods of old Sweden more 
than thirty years ago, and having ever since advocated 
their introduction into America, I need hardly assure you, 
Mr. Editor, that it is a delight to me to know that these 
game Swedish birds are to-day happy and contented deni- 
zens of the forest of my native State, at the very spot 
where twenty- five years ago I founded a prosperous col- 
ony of the stalwart sons and the fair-haired daughter of 
old Sweden. William W. Thomas, Jr. 
MORE NOTIONS ABOUT IT. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In a recent communication to this paper I compared 
that method of deer hunting which is known as "shining" 
with that manner of hunting moose which is known as 
"calling," fairly showing that the two are strongly analo- 
gous when the hunter depends upon the assistance of a 
professional guide to insure success. Inasmuch as "shin- 
ing" is under the ban of the law in some States, and is 
not considered "good form" by those who are inclined to 
take high ground in such matters, I ventured to question 
the legitimacy of moose calling — an analogous sport— as 
a method of hunting to be adopted by those who consider 
themselves true sportsmen. 
It may 1)6 set down as an axiom that any mode of hunt- 
ing which gives to the hunter the maximum chance for 
success and to the game hunted the minimum chance for 
escape cannot be habitually — note the italics — used by 
true sportsmen. "Sure thing" methods are characteristic 
of the pot-hunter. 
Calling being the most sure and deadly mode of hunt- 
ing the moose, it follows that it must be classed with pot- 
ting ducks upon the water, killing sitting grouse that 
have been treed and held there by a barking dog, "shin- 
ing" deer and dogging deer, unless extenuating circum- 
stances and conditions can be found to warrant it. 
The "Snap Shots" man — presumably none other than the 
editor himself — argues, in effect, that the end justifies the 
means. Admitting that there is a more sportsmanlike 
way of hunting moose, he says that the amateur hunter 
cannot be expected to expend the time, labor and money 
necessary to learn that better way; that the layman, 
without professional assistance, has little chance of secur- 
ing a head to exhibit to his friends and "yarn" about; 
that he goes out for game, and that it is far more satis- 
factory to hire a guide and through his efforts kill a 
moose than it is to go it alone, get nothing and feel him- 
self a real good, virtuous, high-toned sportsman ! 
All of which is very human. 
And very plausible. 
The great majority of moose hunters will say amen to 
it, no doubt. So will the deer "shiner" and the deer 
dogger. They too go out to get game. And the pot- 
hunter goes out for meat. He too will agree that the end 
justifies the means. 
I know of but one reason why the moose hunter should 
be permitted more latitude than the hunter of deer, which 
is that moose are more scarce than deer and their habitat 
more limited. 
And yet it might, perhaps, be fairly argued that the 
scarcer any species of game is the more punctilious the 
hunter should. be in his mode of pursuing it. 
Deer hunting is an expensive pastime too, expensive 
even for those who live close to deer-inhabited districts. 
That it requires no mean skill to kill a deer by still-hunt- 
ing I can myself testify. 
I have been out more or less for five seasons, and have 
yet to feel the thrill of joy which — so I am told — runs 
through one when viewing his first deer, Had I been an 
expert rifle shot, which I am not, I might possibly have 
killed just three does, but unfortunately I shot first and 
"blasted" afterward— never had a standing shot — and 
always found the deer, like the boy's rabbits, "too short." 
During two seasons I never even saw the flirt of a white 
tail, and that too in a country where deer were fairly 
plenty. 
My experience is that of many resident hunters, prob- 
ably that of the great majority of still- hunters the country 
over. 
Having by now created the impression, probably, that 
I am a very aastbetic article as a sportsman, a sort of 
Chevalier Bayard as a hunter, I shall promptly descend 
from my high horse and admit that I am nothing of the 
kind. 
I questioned the legitimacy of calling as a mode of 
hunting moose simply out of curiosity to know how 
the craft looked upon it. In this last dissertation I have 
attempted to show by analytical reasoning the possible 
objections to it which might be set forth by a hunting 
purist or by a deer "shiner" in defense of the position 
that he is entitled to as much latitude in his sport as the 
moo3e hunter is in his. This not because I have the 
slightest objection to it myself, but— well, say that I have 
dene it to be contrary, if you please, to take the other side 
against ye editor, or whoever the "Snap Shots",, man 
may be. 
As a matter of fact, I believe with Kelpie that circum- 
stances are an important factor in determining what is 
true sportsmanship and what not. 
• If a man goes afield armed with a modern double-bar- 
reled breechloader which he has learned to use with skill, 
either from practice on game or at the traps, and shoots a 
sitting bird which his dog has pointed, I take it that he is 
little better than a pot-hunter. 
So, also, if he takes a pot shot at a flock of ducks on 
the water. The only possible excuse for such acts would 
be perhaps the near approach of night and a still empty 
bag upon his shoulder. To get game is the primary ob- 
ject of every hunter, and few there be with the moral 
courage to resist toward night — after a day of hard luck 
— the temptation to make a shot which will Burely put 
something in the bag, be it sportsmanlike or not. 
Poor arms and lack of skill in their use certainly excuse 
many things which would otherwise be highly discredit- 
able. Take the case of some poor country lad, for in- 
stance, who, having completed his afternoon's "stent," 
gets out an old-fashioned muzzleloading single gun which 
he loads with cheap black powder, newspaper or hornets' 
nest wadding — the latter considered best by country youths 
— and too much coarse shot bygone-half, and then starts for 
the wood lot on a run, for the sun is already sinking low 
in the western sky. Gaining its cover, he steals cau- 
tiously along some old wood road, his bare, brown feet 
making no noise among the crisp autumn leaves that 
strew the way, his bright eye ever on the alert for "pat- 
ridge" or rabbit or, perchance, a prowling fox. Mayhaps 
he sees a ruffed grouse sitting upon a log before she has 
become aware of his presence. 
Distrusting the powers of the old gun, which he knows 
full well scatters "all over creation" and is likely to have 
a blank space in its pattern as big as a peck measure, he 
creeps along until he judges that he is near enough, or 
until the wary bird sees or hears him, and with outspread 
tail and ruff erect utters the quit I quitl quit I — which is 
the signal for her flight— when he gets a rest if he can, 
sights as long as he can, and lets drive. If, when he 
has picked himself up and the smoke has cleared away, 
the boy sees the bird kicking upon the ground, how he 
whoops with delight as he rushes forward to pick her up, 
smooth her ruffed feathers and admire her barred tail! If 
there has been a hole in the pattern, he "darns the 
dumbed ole gun," loads up again and hunts up another 
bird. 
It would be absurd to say that the boy has done some- 
thing unsportsmanlike. He knows no better. His equip- 
ment fits him for nothing better. If a barn could fly he 
could not hit it, and would not dream of trying. He 
might pot ducks, without reproach attaching to the act. 
If the trout positively refuse the artificial fly, I do not 
think that I demean myself as a sportsman by trying them 
with bait. But I never use bait if they will rise to the fly 
at all. 
. To return to moose calling: if the hunter can stay in the 
woods but a very few days, I think that he would be 
amply justified in using the mode of hunting most likely 
to give nim a moose. If he can stay two or three weeks, 
then he should try still-hunting until he sees his visit 
drawing to a close and no moose yet in camp. 
F. A. Mitchell. 
Manistee, Mich., Feb. 27. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
The Piegan Delegation. 
Chicago, 111., April 2.— It may interest readers of 
Forest and Stream to know that the party of Blackfeet 
Indians who had the Camp of the Red Hunter in the 
Forest and Stream exhibit in the Sportsmen's Exposi- 
tion last week have brought their journeyingsso far West 
as Chicago on the way toward home, and on last Saturday 
evening left for Blackfoot, Mont., via the Wisconsin Cen- 
tral road to St. Paul, and thence over the Great Northern. 
All were in fair health, and Natoye, the baby, was about 
over her civilized croup. At Washington the entire party 
shook hands with the Great Father, visited the National 
Zoological Gardens and were photographed at the Ethno- 
logical Department. They saw the vaults of the U. S. 
Treasury, and an attendant explained what heaps of 
money were stacked up there, though he could not make 
the Indian mind understand what $1,000,000 means. 
Bear Chief pondered for about an hour after leaving the 
Treasury vaults, and then said, "I cannot understand 
these things. I have seen with my own eyes that the 
Great Father has houses full of money, yet when his men 
come to sit in council with us and talk of buying our land, 
they always tell us the Great Father is very poor!" One 
hopes that this level-headed Indian man may carry home 
other and less puzzling lines of reflection from his visit 
East. At Chicago the party bought about half a carload 
of household goods of Montgomery Ward & Co., and 
about the last word from Bear Chief was the practical re- 
quest that after a while the Forest and Stream would 
act as his agent here at Chicago, when he sent in his 
money, and get for him a good wagon with two seats, not 
a very heavy wagon, but one with thick tires, which the 
rocks would not wear out so soon. From travois to 
wagon would seem a long step, yet as Forest and Stream 
showed to thousands, it has occurred in the lives of these 
people, and they are trying to make the most of it. At 
Chicago, as at New York, they made friends by the score, 
and I imagine that many readers of Forest and Stream 
in this city will follow them with interest even after they 
have reached their home at the edge of the big mountains 
of the North. 
Elk in Michigan. 
A few weeks ago I chronicled the statement of Mr. F. 
H. Lord, of this city, in regard to his killing elk in Michi- 
gan South Peninsula about thirty years ago, when he 
was a boy, remarking that this was the last actual news 
of an eye-witness of the killing of this animal in Michi- 
gan. This brings out an interesting letter from Mr. H. N. 
Botsford, of the Wolverine Dry Dock Co., Port Huron, 
Mich., who tracks the elk considerably further along than 
Mr. Lord leaves it in the history of that State. Mr. Bots- 
ford says that in the winter of 1867, and about the time 
Mr. F. H. Lord got his elk, Mr. George Bryant, a resident 
of Port Huron, went into the lumber camp of Mr. Horace 
Bunce, located on the headwaters of Elk Creek, in Sanilac 
county. Wftile on his way he met a trapper who had 
just shot an elk and taken it to the shore town of Forest- 
ville. The locality of the shooting was only a few miles 
from where Mr. Lord did his shooting, and it is possible 
this was one of the same band. 
"Later on," says Mr. Botsford, "Mr. Bryant opened a 
butcher shop in Port Huron, and on Dec. 14, 1877, ten 
years later, a Sanilac county farmer brought an elk he 
had shot to this city on a sleigh and sold it to Mr. Bryant, 
who paid 6 cents per pound for it. It had the head and 
horns on, entrails taken out and weighed over 5001bs., as 
he paid $30.50 for it. Mr. Bryant kept it at his shop several 
days before cutting it up. I saw it several times and had 
part of it when cut up. Capt. F. J. Merryman bought 
the head and sent it to the Coast Wrecking Co., New 
York. Since then I have not heard of any elk being in 
the thumb of Michigan." 
The above news is as authentic and definite as it is in- 
teresting, and at this writing is the last word on the elk 
as an inhabitant of Michigan, though I have heard unsup- 
ported rumors of elk having been seen in a certain part 
of the State much later than that. 
Elk In Indiana. 
This talk about the elk in this region brings also word 
on the subject from Indiana, though nothing except the 
H 00 | * hat the animal once at some time abounded there. 
Mr. W. N. McKeehen, a merchant of Fremont, Ind., 
writes thus: 
"I have been interested in the articles published in 
Forest and Stream regarding the elk of Michigan, We 
think the elk were at home here at one time, evidence of 
which I send you by express to-day (a part of a small 
horn). What wouldn't a fellow give to have such game 
to hunt here to-day! Eheu! Many of these horns are 
being found in the marshes here since the marshes have 
been ditched and cultivated." 
The piece of horn Mr. McKeehen is good enough to send 
is about 3ft. long, broken and weathered and softened in 
spots, but still for the most solid and substantial. It 
rather sets one thinking about the swiftness of the march 
of civilization; for all this is happening almost within a 
stone's throw of the second (or first!) largest city of the 
United States. 
Elk in Ohio. 
Elk were within this century no doubt numerous in 
northern Ohio. In an article printed some years ago I 
mentioned the heaps of antlers found in the boggy thickets 
along the famous Castalia trout stream. 
Before It Is Too Late. 
It is too late now to save the wild game of America, 
but what are we to think of a statement, it will soon be 
too late to secure specimens of some of the native African 
big game! Chicagoans will follow with interest the do- 
ings in upper Africa of Prof. Daniel Giraude Elliott and 
Mr. Caul Akeley, his taxidermist, both of the Field Colum- 
bian Museum, of Chicago, who have set forth to gather 
zoological specimens for that institution. The expedition 
is this week at London, Eng., and the cable quotes Prof. 
Elliott as saying that the "rapid disappearance of wild 
creatures in Africa made it necessary for the expedition 
to go upon the field before it was too late." 
Prof. Elliott and party will outfit in London, go to 
Aden, cross Berbara and thence strike south, making for 
Somaliland. He will have a large body of men along, in- 
cluding some fifty fighting men to stand off native scien- 
tists possessed of a penchant for collecting specimens 
themselves. 
Beaver in Nebraska. 
Mr. L. A. Coburn, of the Citizens' State Bank, Chad- 
ron, Neb., writes, saying that Mr. Wm. Benham, of that 
section, has brought into town two beaver, an old one 
and a yeailing, caught on the White River, near Chadron. 
The animals created a great stir, being the first of the 
kind seen thereabouts for some years. 
Mr. Coburn says sentiment is growing in that part of 
the country against spring shooting of wild fowl. Ducks 
and geese are very scarce and in poor condition. 
A New Bullet. 
Mr. Alfred Weed, of the Arcade File Works, of Ander- 
son, Ind., is a rifleman fond of experimenting, and has 
patented a number of curious devices. By kindness of 
Mr. J. W. McNevin he sends up one of his inventions, 
an expansive rifle ball, with which he is experimenting 
and about which he would like news of results on big 
game. This bullet has absolutely no top, and is simply a 
section of a cylinder, perforated throughout, from end to 
end, with a hole about the size of the usual express bullet 
cavity. The bullet is cannelured, and when seated pro- 
jects but little beyond the metal shell. It is said to take 
the grooves all right, to fly with sufficient accuracy at 
express ranges, and to have apparently a great tearing 
effect, the substance of the object struck filling' up the 
hole and wedging the projectile out much as the express 
ball in its action.* 
Gun Flints. 
I don't know whether New Brunswick comes under'the 
head of "Chicago and the West" or not, but probably it 
does, as Chicago is a large place. Anyhow, I have a num- 
ber of friends up there (whom I have never seen), andon9 
of them, Mr. W. T. Chestnut, of Fredericton, N. B., 
writes me a rather curious thing about modern gunnery. 
He states that they still use flint locks in his country ! 
Speaking of illegal killing of fish by dynamite, he says: 
"Our people would be too slow for that. I never knew of 
but one case of dynamiting. To give you an idea of our 
quiet ways, I may say, my grandfather started business 
in this town in 1836, and we still carry it on in the same 
store, at the same stand. And we keep gun flints for sale 
yet. A man came in to-day and got three flints. I asked 
him how he liked his gun, and he said, 'Fine!' So I 
thought if he was satisfied I was. The more flint locks, 
the more game. I thought I would write you about this, 
as a man buying gun flints nowadays is something of a 
novelty." 
It is something of a novelty in this region of change 
and "progress." But what a restful vision of peace and 
permanency it does call up! I fear we have given the 
price for our modern improvements in many ways. 
He can Make a Record. 
A real estate firm of Port Lavaca, Tex., booming a 
piece of land, speaks of the wildfowl near by, and says: 
"Gunners are always on hand to kill for the New York, 
Chicago and St. Louis markets, and a sportsman away 
from home for an outing can make a record." Out upon 
it! Record us no records, for we have records enough. 
We hear too much of records. Let some man who is a 
sportsman make a record by not making a record. 
Ruffed Grouse Eggs. 
Mr. A. McAllister, of El Dorado, Ark., writes asking 
where he can get two or three sittings of ruffed grouse 
eggs. He wants to introduce the bird into that country, 
where quail and woodcock are native. I am just out of 
ruffed grouse eggs myself, but perhaps some one can tell 
where they can be had. I should think they would be 
ago 
* The Weed bullet was described in Forest and Stream ten ve-rs 
ro.— Ed. Forest and Stream, ' 
