July 14, 1894.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
29 
hours we worked without a minute's rest until he told me 
the torn flight was over, and I who was going to "keep 
tab" if I could not play, told him I had counted sixteen 
dozen dead birds besides those on the hed. Well, we had 
a rest, broken only by a visit from the burden of a net- 
ter's life, "a hen hawk." The stool bird had his eye on 
the hawk and would not move his wings, so for sport a 
green bird was put on and I doubled the hawk up with a 
charge of 6s. 
~i About 9:30 the birds began to return to the nesting, and 
we had a cha,nce to see their way of feeding. In the 
ravine was a creek and small pond lined with birch and 
alder. After the birds had scoured through the woods, 
rolling over one another and the leaves like waves, until 
they were thirsty, they would swing out into the valley 
and' strike the creek, going down two or three at a time, 
and then pitching away for their nesting. As they are 
satisfied on the back fly, we attempted nothing until they 
were all in. He told me the hens Would break out to-day 
in full force, as they had been in two days laying. I 
could not describe the sight when they did come out 
about 10:3ft. From every point there came flocks, and the 
air was never clear.. We could do nothing but set the net 
and straighten up in time to spring again. Our house was 
almost filled with dead birds. I was allowed to try my 
hand and succeeded in catching the bed. The old stool 
bird had no use for me. Through good and bad luck we 
had added 29 dozen hens, and as the outfly was finished 
he advised our carrying the dead birds to a cool place, 
where he husked them with the hatchet and laid them out 
to set for packing. After covering them with brush I left 
for the house for ice and an empty barrel, as he did not 
wish to let his luck be known. Meantime the stool bird 
and flyers were fed, and when I got back were ready for 
the evening fly of the toms, who go out twice to the hens' 
once. 
At 3 P. M, the hens began getting back, so we cleaned 
up the bed and were soon ready for the toms once more. 
Almost the first flock we saw came directly for the creek 
to water, and in a moment were leisurely starting over 
our "clearing, when our flyers attracted their attention 
and a beautiful scene followed. On they came, their 
crimson breast toward the sun as handsome as nature — I 
could hear my friend say "Too many! Too many!" At 
last he ripped into them and the net only got about half 
way over. When we got out the birds were pouring out 
of the net, so many there were that they held up the 
front line. Dropping flat on it we had the satisfaction of 
saving 159 birds, which was our best haul of the day. 
Now followed a repetition of the early morning pro- 
gramme, lasting until sundown, and when we got through 
we found, sixty-one dozen and three birds to the good. To 
me it was a revelation; I think it was a surprise to the 
old man whose locks were sprinkled with gray. These 
birds were laid with the others as they were, and at 10 
o'clock that night were packed and on their road to Bos- 
ton, where the first arrivals sold at $2.50 a dozen. 
With unvarying success for the two weeks necessary to 
hatch the eggs we continued our sport. I was given a 
net and had lots of praise showered on me by as kind a 
man and as true a friend as I ever met in that business. 
In every clearing within a radius of fifteen miles was a 
bough house, and each train was loaded with birds. 
Evenings there would be a grand reunion at some corner 
"grocery," and they would vie with one another in the 
pigeon tales galore, which may account for the author's 
lore. F. E. S. 
Eatj Claire, Wis, 
[TO be concluded.] 
DEER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
A large portion of northern New Hampshire is to-day 
an unbroken wilderness. Deer are quite plenty, and. 
almost everything favors their increase. I have cruised 
about to some extent in the region lying about the East 
Branch of the Pemmigewassett River in the towns of 
Lincoln and Livermore, seeing numerous signs of deer 
and bears. This place is quite easily reached, the termi- 
nus of the Pemmigewassett Valley Railroad being at the 
mouth of the Branch. 
In years past, when there was practically no protection 
for deer, a great many were killed in this region every 
winter. At a certain house near the Branch, some two 
miles from the railroad station, I have been told, there 
would be seventy-five deer hanging in the barn at a time. 
These deer were killed by different parties. The route up 
the East Branch was the easiest to the woods, and the 
house the last one passed. Parties coming out would 
drag their deer there and leave them until they could 
come after them with teams. This hunting was done in 
the winter in deep snow, where the deer were yarded. 
An old resident of that region said to me, "We were 
about sure of getting every deer in each yard we found. 
At one time we had thirty-two hanging about our camp." 
Such slaughter is now a thing of the past. The game 
laws are pretty well enforced, and very few deer are 
killed out of season. As one of the former crust-hunters 
said, "It ain't safe to kill 'em now. Last winter I wanted 
some fresh meat and started out one morning before day- 
fight. I killed a deer that day and did not bring it out of 
the woods until after dark, and I was careful about leav- 
ing signs where I left the woods. Two days after a 
warden came here saying he must look around, as he 
heard I had been killing deer." 
For quite a number of years but few deer have been 
killed each season in this region, and they should have 
increased. My hunting there was not a success. I went 
late in November to try still-hunting, but did not get a 
chance. Every snow storm ended in rain, making very 
noisy traveling during my stay. I jumped a good many 
deer, but could not get sight of one on account of the 
noise. Some six or seven miles back in the woods is a 
small pond, and parties who have been there trout fish- 
ing report deer signs very numerous, and it is also quite a 
place for bears. A party camping near this pond for a 
week or so in the early part of September, would be likely 
to get a number of shots by watching the ponds at day- 
break and toward sunset. A trip there would cost much 
less than one to Maine or the Adirondacks. It would 
necessitate packing in provisions, camp outfit and making 
your own camp and roughing it to some extent. It 
might not suit some sportsmen who are accustomed to 
some of the well appointed camps of Maine or northern 
New York, where everything (except possibly the game) 
is provided. C. M. Stark. 
Ddhbabton, N. H. 
WISCONSIN DUCKS AND DEER. 
Ashland, Wis, — Editor Forest and Stream: I have 
long wanted to drive a spike in that platform of yours — 
"Stop the sale of game at all seasons of the year." That 
is the only way to save it. Some say, tax j the gun. 
What would be the use of that? The market-hunter would 
pay his tax and shoot enough more, if possible, to make 
up for it. I have been a market-hunter, and I know that 
is what I would try and do. But take the poor man that 
has only an old musket or some other cheap old gun, and 
who would like a meBS of partridges or ducks for his family 
once in a while — it would come hard on him. I know 
plenty of such in this Bection of the country, that nearly 
all the fresh meat they have is what they can kill with 
their old guns, and I should hate to see them have to pay 
a tax on them, for it is enough for them to buy their am- 
munition, and all they can afford. But I am "dead sore" 
against the market-hunter, and I am in hopes the law will 
be passed that will put an end to the wholesale slaughter 
of game for the market. 
We are not troubled very much with the market-hunter 
here, only on deer; the other game is so scarce that it 
would not be profitable for them to hunt it. Ten years 
ago a good shot could go two miles from town and in one 
forenoon, on a good day, could bag 25 or 30 ducks, but he 
could not do it in a week now. 
Last October my partner and I went to the Kankagon 
marshes, ten miles from here, and hunted three days, and 
only got 17 ducks. These marshes are the best feeding 
grounds for ducks in the country. They cover about 
2,000 nacres, and are w ell seeded with wild rice, whioh 
the Indians of Odanah Reservation gather every fall. 
But the ducks are nearly gone. Where? Shot and sold 
to the Eastern markets by market-hunters. As I said 
before, there are no market-hunters here, only for deer. 
They have been killed off by the hunters in other 
localities. 
"No spring shooting of ducks" would have been another 
good plank in your platform. That is another cause for 
the scarcity of ducks. I have not hunted ducks in the 
spring for the last two or three years. When I came to 
dress the last I killed they pricked my conscience, for 
the females were full of eggs. I figured like this, that 
every female duck I killed would have hatched ten or 
a dozen young dueks, to be ready for shooting in the 
fall, so virtually I was killing ten or twelve ducks every 
time I killed a female. I stopped short. 
The game law for this State, as it is now, on deer is the 
poorest we have ever had. The open season commences 
Oct. 1 and closes Nov. 1 . The leaves are then about half 
off the trees and it is still warm; the deer are hard to see 
and when shot are hard to find unless knocked down cold 
on the spot; and that is hard to do in snap-sbooting, for 
it is catch-as-catch-can. I went a week last fall, shot 
three and got one. I shot him high and first broke his 
back. One of the others, a small doe, I found two days 
after, but the meat was spoiled so I would not even skin 
it. The other I never found but trailed her by the blood 
for nearly half a mile, and it took me nearly all day, but 
I did not find her. My partner shot two and lost them 
both. We also trailed one of his a long way by the blood 
but finally lost it on account of loose leaves aud green 
undergrowth. The other he shot was a large buck, just 
as it was getting dark. We soon lost the trail. This deer 
was found three or four days after by an old man living 
on a homestead near by, but of course it was only good 
for the wolves to feast on. 
The wolves lived high here last October, for there were 
lots of dead deer scattered through the woods that could 
not be found; many were found after they had spoiled, 
by land lookers and other parties. The deer I killed and 
got was a large buck, I shot him at about four o'clock in 
the afternoon. We dragged him to the N. P. R. R. track, 
about forty rods; then we found a push car and loaded 
him on and took him to the depot which was about one 
and one-half miles. We broke camp and brought him to 
Ashland that night, and left him in the freight depot. 
The next morning we skinned and cut him up, and in 
that short time, about seventeen hours, the meat had be- 
gun to smell, especially where it was bloody. Now what 
is the use of having a law to kill deer if you can not save 
the meat? if the open season were from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1, 
the leaves would be off the trees, so if you shot a deer and 
did not kill him on the spot you would have a chance to 
get another shot or two and save the deer, and not let him 
run off and die and be no good to no one only the wolves 
and crows. 
The open season in Minnesota is from Dec. 1 to Nov. 1. 
So the market-hunter kills what he can here in October; 
then crosses the fine and shoots during the month of 
November in Minnesota, giving him two months. They 
have got a nice law here in this State for exterminating 
all the deer in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The profes- 
sional can take his choice, after he hunts here during the 
month of October, he can hunt the next month in 
Minnesota or Michigan. The law was all right as it was 
before they changed it. A man could have only one 
month on deer, and take it in either State; but now the 
market-hunter has a picnic. If what they are trying to 
do is to protect the deer, why do they not have the law 
the same in all three States and then stop the sale of veni- 
son? That would fix the market-hunters. If that was 
not enough, only give us the last two weeks in November 
so we could save what we killed and have a show to get 
what we cripple. 
I met four market-hunters last fall on the train that 
said they had been hunting up on the Brule River, but 
could not make it pay, for they lost more than they got, 
and had to take them to market nearly as soon as killed; 
but they were going up in Minnesota as soon as the law 
opened to hunt there during the whole month of Novem- 
ber. They wanted to know if I was going. I told them 
I did not hunt for the market, was just going out to try 
and kill one to eat and divide up with my friends. 
We have organized a gun club here with sixteen mem- 
bers, the name of it is the Ashland Gun, Rod and Game 
Protective Club, J. W. Close, Pres.; Dr. Otto Braun, 
Sec'y; Sebe Malmberg, Treas.; Leo Braun, Captain. The 
club will have shooting contests and try and protect the 
game and fish out of season. Spike Horn. 
Quail in Went Virginia.: 
Central City, W. Va. — A commendable lack of inter- 
est was shown last year in the pursuit of game, especially 
quail, on account of their scarcity, caused by the hard 
winter, and this fact, coupled with the mildness of the 
past winter, doubtless insures a good supply of quail for 
the fall shooting in this section. Our hunters cannot 
pursue their sport, so far as quail shooting is concerned, 
in Ohio for three years to come, as I understand the Legis- 
lature has put down its foot again. As I have said before, 
I am opposed to prohibition for even one year. What we 
want is a short season every year for shooting, and the 
law enforced, no one daring to pull a trigger or cast a 
hook except when the law allows. N. D. E. 
[The Ohio law does not provide for a three-years' close 
season.] 
The Prospect for Quail in Tennessee. 
Memphis, July 2. — Those of us who look to Bob White 
(quail) to furnish us sport afield with dog and gun, when 
the frosts of the fall kiss the vegetation, watch with in- 
terest the weather for the.month of June; for it is during 
this month that the quail nest, lay, and the weather per- 
mitting do most of their hatching. If it is dry and pleas- 
ant, we see large bevies of early birds and plenty of them. 
If wet and.disagreeable, the nests are often washed away, 
or the young are destroyed by the excessive rain, com- 
pelling the old birds to nest again. When the weather is 
warm ma,ny eggs addle from the heat before hatching, 
or — if hatched — the young are overtaken by the cold 
weather before fully feathered and are apt to die from 
the effects of the cold. 
Small bevies and few of them follow a wet June. The 
weather this season could not be more propitious for the 
rearing of young quail. Throughout the fields in this 
section we now hear the Bob White of the quail, as he sits 
on some stump or in some brush and does guard duty for 
his mate, who is doing duty on some nest near by, causing 
the sportsman to look forward with pleasure to the ides of 
[November, when all nature is clothed in her russet hue and 
the keen November wind sings a funeral dirge to the de- 
parted heat and dust of summer as it soughs mournfully 
through the pines. The whir of the quail unnerves the 
shooter as they disappear like rockets to the right or left. 
The shooter's lungs expand with the ozone of the crisp 
air like a pair of double compound expansion engines, 
causing the old to think they are boys again and the in- 
valid to feel for the time they have found the elixir of 
life, as they climbed hill after hill in pursuit of the quail, 
or followed the old dog, who is seeking in yonder covert 
another bevy of the brown beauties, or tenderly retrieves 
a couple that was cut down by a neat double just a 
moment ago. 
We are apt to forget as we swelter in the heat of just 
such weather as we are having, that it makes good quail 
shooting next November a reality, not a dream. We now 
sit and mop the great beads of perspiration away, or sniff 
the heated air, or fight the flies that tickle our noses or 
ears, or hurl anathemas at the mosquitoes and wonder 
what such wea.ther was made for. Tnen in a somnambu- 
listic state, if we look down the vista of time, as we step 
into the field next November with dog and gun and the 
whir of the many quail and bang! bang! of the deadly 
breechloader, it makes one think that every cloud has its 
silver lining. P. H. Bryson. 
Non-Resident Sportsmen in Arkansas. 
Little Rock, July 2.— Editor Forest and Stream: An 
inquiry in the last number of Forest and Stream whether 
it is necessary for non-resident sportsmen to procure a 
license to hunt in Arkanses, recalls to mind a promise I 
made you, at'tne World's Fair last September, to cite you 
to a provision in the digest of the statutes of Arkansas re- 
lating to game protection which has been omitted from 
the Book of the Game Laws. 
You will find it in Mansfield's Digest. Chapter 149, Sec- 
tions 6456-8. Section 6456 provides that "a tax of ten dol- 
lars is hereby levied upon all non-resident trappers, hunt- 
ers, seiners or netters of fish who may follow trapping, 
hunting, seining or netting of fish in this State." Section 
6457, that ' 'before any non-resident may be permitted to 
follow trapping, hunting, seining or netting of fish in this 
State, he shall procure a license from the county clerk, 
countersigned by the collector of the county in which he 
proposes to trap, hunt, seine or net fish." Section 6458 pro- 
vides a penalty for violation of the two preceding sections. 
These sections have never been construed by the courts. 
I have understood that the county officials in some of the 
eastern counties have construed these sections to require 
all non-resident hunters or fishermen to procure a county 
license to hunt or fish in this State. It would seem to be 
clear that the law was aimed only at those who follow 
trapping, hunting, etc. , as a livelihood. 
T. D. Craweord. 
[This law was omitted from the Game Laws in Brief, 
because it was considered to apply only to trappers and 
hunters who followed the pursuit as an occupation; and 
not to apply to sportsmen shooting for pleasure. This 
view has been sustained by the opinion of Hon. J. M. 
Rose, of Little Rock, and appears also to be indorsed by 
Mr. Crawford. The man who goes on a quail shooting or 
deer hunting excursion can hardly be classed among 
"those who may follow trapping or hunting." The law 
was enacted in 1875, nearly twenty years ago; and the 
game legislation now recognized as actually in force in 
Arkansas is of later date. The non-export law was 
adopted in 1889, and is contained in the .Brief as amended 
in 1891.] 
Indians and -Game in Wyoming. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I am glad to hear through the medium of your columns 
of the abatement of the Indian nuisance in western and 
northwestern Wyoming. That particular section of the 
country mentioned by Ira Dodge seems to have been 
their paradise for the simple reason of the big game being 
so plentiful and requiring very little work on the part of 
the marauders to get "heap lot" buckskins. I remember 
while herding through that country, and particularly 
Jackson's Hole, running on to carcasses of elk, deer, etc, 
which were stripped clean of their hides. Bucks, squaws 
and papooses would arrive in the early fall with strings 
of ponies for the chase, and if every hoof wasn't well 
loaded when they went out the game must have been 
very much on the lookout. 
Not satisfied with hunting "on the square" in the fall 
of '92 they camped right in the very canon through which 
the antelope were in the habit of going south; and had it 
not been for the prompt action of the Hole's oldest settlers 
in driving the redskins from the field and out into Idaho, 
there would, certainly have been a great slaughter of 
game. However, some of the whites had better let up 
on their illicit way of hunting and the game would then 
be safe. Gros Ventre. 
