Oat. 3, 1896.] 
FORfiST AND STREAM^ 
267 
on the east side of the river at about 9:30 o'clock, and the 
tenderfeet in the party out for deer for the first time be- 
gan to cock their rifles, not understanding that it might 
be two hours before a deer would come their way, Before 
10 o'clock the crack of the rifles had been heard at differ- 
ent runways along the river, and those who had not yet 
had a shot were beginning to ehow signs of feverish 
anxiety. 
''I will now speak of my own experience at the Big 
Pine runway. Guide Kimball left me at this runway, 
which was in a broad valley right where the river made 
a turn at right angles. Kimball said, as he gave me his 
parting instructions, that it was not the best runway on 
the river, but then deer had been known to come in there, 
and he did not like to leave the spot unguarded. I made 
myself comfortable on a log and waited. At 10:40 o'clock 
I heard a deer jumping in the timber on the east 
side of the river. A second after I heard the 
first jump, a fine doe came into view in the 
bushes on the edge of the east bank of the river. 
As the doe skipped through the bushes on her way to the 
water I left my seat upon the log, faced toward the point 
at which she would enter the water, gripped my gun 
firmly and tried to think of the rules for avoiding an 
attack of buck fever. It did not take long for the doe to 
reach the water. I heard her go down the muddy bank 
just beyond a fallen tree top which shut out my view of 
her as she reached the water, but I heard the gentle splash 
as she gracefully glided into the dark-colored stream, and 
then in a moment the little wavelets of the disturbed 
water broke across the sm-face of the river, and I raised 
my Marlin repeater and with finger resting lightly against 
the trigger waited for the doe's head to come from behind 
the shadow of the dead branches of the fallen tree. 
"The doe was not long in reaching the middle of the 
stream, which at the point selected for her crossing was 
not over SOf t. wide. She was swimming rapidly for the 
west bank, and as she reached the middle of the stream I 
fired my first shot at a deer. The bullet sent the water 
flying around her head, but it disturbed her not, and as 
she pressed toward the bank I fired again. This shot 
struck her in the under jaw and she stopped still in the 
water, then raised herself until her shoulders showed 
clear above the waterUne, and I fired again before she 
sank back, floundeining and threshing the water into a 
foam. As the animal floundered about, the blood gushing 
in a stream from the wound in the jaw, my repeater rang 
out again and again, the powder smoke filled the air, and 
the men along the river above and below me thought that 
there must be serious business on about my runway. I 
thought I had the doe sure, and after the fifth shot I 
stopped to watch what I thought were to be her death 
struggles. Bat suddenly she changed her tactics, and be- 
fore I realized what she was doing she was slipping swiftly 
toward the west bank as though nothing had happened. 
I began to work the lever of my Marlin again, and fired 
two rapid shots at her before she reached the bank and 
another just as the bushes of the swamp on the west side 
of the river swallowed her graceful form. Then I hurried 
down to the point where she left the river and entered the 
dense thickets of the swamp. There were splashes of 
blood all over the leaves and grass, which I followed 
through the swamp until the swamp merged into the 
heavily timbered forest twenty rods west of the river. 
"While I was trying to continue the trail of the 
doe by the blood spots, old Jeff, the hound, came down the 
trail, crossed the river and swept past me with howls that 
became more energetic as the faithful dog caught the 
strong odor of the fresh blood. Old Jeff soon was lost to 
sight and hearing on the trail, and that was the end of 
my deer hunting for that day. 
"After Old Jeff's tongue could be heard no more I re- 
turned to my seat on the log much cast down at having 
missed my first deer, and for the rest of the day nothing 
occurred to disturb my painful reflections on my runway. 
I stayed there until the guides came along with the mem- 
bers of the party who had been posted above me, and we 
reached the cabin at about 3 o'clock very hungry, but not 
so hungry that we cared to postpone counting the dead 
deer and listening to the stories of the men who had been 
successful. When all were in from the runways there were 
three deer in front of the cabin, a very good showing for 
the opening day. One fell before Willard's gun, it was 
his first deer too. McChesney, who always kills one on 
the first day of the hunt, was again lucky, and the third 
deer was killed by the two guides, Kimball and Goodrow. 
Both shot at it, and both hit it. McChesney shot three 
times at his deer, a big doe, and each bullet hit her. One 
went through the head, another through the heart and 
the third through the neck. He killed her on the same 
runway he killed the one on the year before, and at nearly 
the same spot in the water. She was swimming when he 
shot her, 
"Willard killed his deer, also a doe, with one shot, the 
bullet going through the shoulder. She ran a few rods 
into the woods after being hit and fell dead. Willard and 
McChesney used the Maynard single breechloading rifle, 
and they agreed that for deer there was no other gun like 
it. There was a lot of Maynard talk in the cabin that 
evening, and it tended to make those of us who used re- 
peaters a bit nervous. And so the first day ended with 
arguments about guns and talk of what might be in store 
for us on the morrow. 
"Second Day, Wednesday, Oct. The day opened with 
a pouring rain. We did not cai-e to go on the runways 
in such a storm, and while some sat about the cabin and 
smoked others took their shotguns and went looking for 
grouse near the cabin. Danford and I went for grouse, 
and we started two on a ridge. Danford shot one, mak- 
ing a pretty shot as the bird was on the wing. While we 
were after the grouse the sun came out, and we hurried 
back to the cabin, expecting that the party would be get- 
ting ready to go on the runways. In our absence there 
had been arrivals at the camp, the new men being S. B. 
"Williams and Charles L. Hoyt, of Rochester, and E, N. 
Wilson, of the Sherman Square Hotel, and G. R, McChes- 
ney, of the Mutual Reserve Fund, New York. As soon as 
the new arrivals had donned their shooting clothes all 
started for the runways. President McChesney decided 
that he would take a poor runway this day, as he had 
killed a deer on the day before, and the plan worked well, 
for no deer came his way, and the rest of the party fared 
no better. In the evening the table was full, there being 
thirteen hungry men gathered about it. Sam Williams 
was happy, for he believes there is luck in the number 
thirteen. 
"Third Day, Thursday, Oct. 3.— We did not get an 
early start this morning, for Mr. Ohapin made us w ait 
while he took a photograph of the camp and the party. 
On the way up tne river we found two red hounds work- 
ing on the trail of a deer near the cabin. We found the 
tracks of the deer where it had entered the water. It 
had succeeded in throwing the dogs off the trail and they 
did not succeed in recovering it. I was placed on my old 
runway at the Big Pine, and at 10:30 o'clock I heard a 
deer jumping in the woods across the river. I saw her 
for a second as she shot past an opening in the woods on 
her way down the east bank of the river. The wind was 
blowing from the southeast, and as she passed to the 
north of where I was standing she scented me, turned, 
ran south and then came down into the little meadow to 
the south and across the river. She ran out into the 
nieadow a few rods and stopped in a bunch of grass that 
hid all of her body excepting her head. Her head was in 
plain view and she was about fifteen rods from me. I 
was afraid to shoot at so small a mark as her head, and 
while I was trying to determine the position of her body 
in the grass she turned and started for the woods to the 
east again. She ran broadside toward me in a gentle 
lope, and I took a hurried shot at her side. After the 
shot I did not see the deer again, but I heard a great 
crash over in the edge of the woods. I could not cross 
the river to see if I haTd killed her, and I waited there for 
three hours until Fred Farmer came along with two of 
the dogs. He forded the river, turned the dogs loose, and 
they found the deer dead in the woods near the edge of 
the meadow. The bullet had struck her on the side about 
over the last rib, had ranged forward and had come out 
at the point of the right shoulder. On its way it passed 
through the heart. The destruction wrought by the bullet 
was evidence that the Marlin repeater is in the front 
rank of deer guns. I used the Marlin .38-55, take-down 
model. This was the only deer that was killed to-day. 
"Fourth Day, Friday, Oct. 4.— It rained this morning, 
but the Antlers did not mind that, and they started for 
their posts along the river at 7 A. M. E. N. Wilson, 
Nolan, Danford and Shepard, who went along ahead, got 
off the trail, and wandered around for an hour before 
they reached the painful conclusion that they were lost. 
Danford said he knew he could reach the river, and off 
he started, despite the protests of the others. His bump 
of location was large, and he reached the river and was 
soon on his old runway. The others floundered around 
until they were overtaken by one of the guides who had 
followed their trail, suspecting that they had strayed 
away. They were escorted back to the river and were 
soon upon the runways again. There was some shooting 
along the river during the day, W. H. Lewis had two 
shots at a deer, but the deer did not stop. Shepard had a 
bit of experience that served as a joke for the rest of the 
stay in camp. Shepard had heard McChesney and Hoyt 
talking about killing bears, and as he sat on his lonely 
runway waiting for the deer that seemed to be a long 
time coming, he had opportunity to think of bears. So 
to-day Shepard thought he would walk back into the 
woods and look for bear tracks. He was gone half an 
hour. He saw no bear tracks. But when he returned to 
his runway the first thing he saw was the fresh tracks of 
a deer in the soft ground at the edge of the river. While 
he was looking for bear tracks a deer had passed on his 
runway. It was an awful blow to Shepard, but he was 
frank enough to confess his error in leaving the runway. 
The boys tried joking him about it, but he took the 
chafiing in such a meek, yet cheerful, spirit that there was 
no fun in that, and as he made some great dishes of apple 
sauce for the next few days the boys let up on him, and 
everyone heartily wished that he would have some luck 
before we broke camp. Mr. Enright, of Moira, who joined 
us in the morning for a day's hunt, shot a small deer to- 
day, and Mr. David Wilson saw one, but did not get a 
shot at it. No one else saw any deer during the day. In 
the afternoon Hutchins and Danford went out for wood- 
cock, and Hutchins shot one in the river bottom, near 
the cabin. Frank Seaman and D. W. Pardee, the latter 
of the Lake Shore Railroad Co. , arrived to-day and were 
duly installed in camp. During the evening, as we sat 
about the cabin smoking and chatting, Mr, Seaman, who 
had hunted in the Rocky Mountains, was asked to tell 
something of the ways of the grizzly bear when he is 
cornered or when he corners the hunter, whichever it is. 
Mr. Saaman told of an occasion when he and his guide, 
an old and experienced hunter, unexpectedly came upon 
a grizzly bear. The bear was nosing around in the 
bushes, and he did not see the htmters. And over that 
fact they shed no tears, for that was not their day for 
grizzlies. They just tiptoed as softly out of that part of 
the country as tney could. They were not looking for 
fun that day. Mr. Seaman's guide had killed grizzlies 
before, but he had quit the business, having decided that 
too much fun is a bad thing for a man's health. All this 
talk about the ability of the grizzly bear to hold up his 
own in a little by play with a man had no effect upon 
the bold Antlers, and McChesney and Hoyt and Danford 
declared they would never be happy until they had a meet- 
ing with a grizzly bear. As a friend of theirs, I hope the 
day of this meeting will be long deferred. 
"Fifth Day, Saturday, Oct. 5.— The morning broke cool 
and Cloudy. We started for the runways at 7 A. M. G, 
R. McChesney was placed over on Spring Pond, a small 
body of water within a quarter of a mile of the cabin 
and on the west side of the river. Mr, McChesney had 
not been on the pond more than an hour when the rest of 
us from our positions along the river above him heard a 
great cannonading over in his neighborhood, and we con- 
cluded that he was having some fun with himself over in 
the dense woods that surrounded the pond, We did not 
get particulars until we turned in at the cabin in the after- 
noon, and then we heard that a yearling buck had entered 
the pond near where McChesney was stationed, and that 
Mr. McChesney immediately started to convert him into 
a lead mine. Mr. McChesney was a bit excited and in his 
haste to load and fire he got .38- 56 shell into the maga- 
zine of his .38-55 Marlin, and had to take the gun apart 
before he could get it in working order again, and all the 
time he was tinkering with his gun the buck was swim- 
ming across the narrow pond. But Mr. McChesney man- 
aged to get his gun in order and killed the buck. One of 
McChesney 's bullets went near the cabin, and Norman 
Peck, the guide, who happened to be out of the cabin, 
heard the bullet sing over his head, and he immediately 
retired behind the cabin until the fusillade over on the 
pond had stopped. C. H. McChesney spent this morning 
at Twin Ponds, where the deer were not expected, but 
Mac's good luck followed him and he bagged a doe, mak- 
ing a superb shot at SOOyds. The deer was on the run 
when McChesney saw it, and he fired two shots to get the 
range of his gun, and then a third shot for business. The 
ball struck the deer in the neck and she dropped in her 
tracks. George Kimball killed a yearling buck at the Tea 
Field. Sam Williams went home this evening, but he did 
not take his baggage with him, which was a sign that he 
was to return. E. N, Wilson went to bed early with a 
sprained ankle, which G. R. McChesney skillfully ban- 
daged. The rest of the boys held a general meeting 
around the table in the dining room and decided to return 
next year. They named the club the Antlers Club and 
elected C, H. McChesney president, and Charles L. Hoyt 
secretary and treasurer. 
"Sixth Day, Sunday, Oct C— This was Sunday and guns 
were left in the cabin and the dogs were allowed to rest. 
Most of the Antlers walked through the woods to the Blue 
Mountain House, where they had a fine dinner, with Mr. 
Seaman as the host. They returned in the afternoon in 
time to see the New York men start for home. They 
went in a special train which had been sent up for them. 
They were not anxious to leave, and we were sorry to part 
with them. They had proved themselves true sportsmen, 
and the Rochester Antlers will never meet to talk of those 
days in the St. Regis country without paying tribute to the 
manly qualities of the New York gentlemen with whom 
they were so fortunate as to be assoiated, 
"Seventh Day, Monday, Oct 7.— I shot my second deer 
to-day. It was also a doe and a fine one. She came into 
the river very near my runway, and I missed her with 
the first shot, but killed her dead on the second, the ball 
passing through her neck. 
"Eicfhth Day, Tuesday, Oct, S — Dinford and Hutchins 
left for their Homes to-Uay. Hoyt shot a young buck on 
a runway near the cabin. 
"Ninth Day, Wednesday, Oof, 9.— Sam Williams returned 
to camp this morning brmging a big rainstorm with him. 
It was dreary work on the runways this morning, but 
many of us went out. David Wilson, who was to start 
for home in the afternoon, killed a fine buck just as he 
was preparing to leave his runway and return to the 
cabin. He was, I think, the happiest man I ever saw. 
Our hunting practically closed to-day and we all began to 
prepare to leave for our homes. Shepard and Williams 
decided to remain until Saturday and shoot birds. 
"This antlered head above our table tells of the rare luck 
that Shepard had after we left him, but I will not spoil 
the details of a good buck story by trying to tell it myself, 
but will call on Mr. Shepard to entertain us with his ex- 
perience in running to the death the finest deer that fell 
before the guns of the Antlers in 1894. 
"This closed my history and in response to my sugges- 
tion Mr. Shepard told his story. It seems that after we 
left the cabin he amused himself hunting partridges. On 
one of his tours he started the buck a short distance from 
the cabin. He returned to the cabin, got his rifle and re- 
turned to the trail of the buck. After several hours' pa- 
tient work he got a shot at the buck as it was crossing a 
clearing and the bullet entered the animal's neck, but did 
not stop him. He left blood in his trail and it was evi- 
dent that he had received his death wound. Shepard did 
not follow him, but returned to the cabin and on the fol- 
lowing morning started out with one of the dogs on the 
bloody trail. The dog found the buck lying on the edge 
of a small stream. The buck was so exhausted that he 
could not rise to his feet, and he was speedily put out of 
his misery. The buck was a magnificent animal, one of 
the finest that had been killed in that region in years. 
Shepard bore him in triumph to Rochester." 
James Nolan. 
PARRY SOUND DEER. 
As SOME of your readers may be interested in deer 
hunting in Ontario, I shall give you my experiences of 
last November in the Parry Sound district. 
I Set out on Oct, 28 as one of a party of six, all but one 
being deer hunters of more or less experience. We 
brought with us a large tent and camping outfit, includ- 
ing a sheet iron stove, a liberal supply of provisions and 
six dogs — three foxhounds and "an equal number of 
beagles. We traveled per Grand Trunk Railway to Burk's 
Falls, where we remained over night, and next morning 
we boarded a steamer for Alunic Harbor, where we hired 
a team and driver, and putting up until next morning at 
a very cosy tourists' hotel we started for the woods. 
None of us had ever hunted in the neighborhood to 
which we were going. We had intended to pitch our tent 
at a lumber camp about ten miles from Alunic Harbor, 
which had been deserted for several years, and near which 
we had been informed deer were plentiful; but we found 
that it was again occupied by a lumbering outfit, and that 
we would have to seek some other location. Having lit- 
tle faith in the average hired guide, and some in our own 
judgment, we hired no guide and determined to drive 
into the brush until we struck a locality which suited us, 
and then unload and pitch our tent. We traveled seven- 
teen miles before we did this, and on account of the 
roughness of the road made very slow progress, and had 
to foot it nearly all the way. It was dark by the time we 
got our tent up, and too late to prepare hemlock brush 
beds as usual, but haviug cooked and eaten our supper, we 
rolled into our blankets and made ourselves as comfort- 
able as possible. 
The next day was spent in getting things into shape in 
our camp, which was situated near two small lakes, and 
by the following morning, Nov. 1, the opening of the 
hunting season, we were ready for business. 
After hunting three days and killing only one deer, a 
doe, among us, we made up our minds that we had made 
a mistake for once. There were plenty of deer in our 
neighborhood, but the bush was too thick and rough and 
there appeared to be no feeding grounds near us, so we 
spent our fourth day in prospecting for a more favorable 
location. 
We found it four miles away at a deserted lumber camp 
on a very good "cadge" road, and the next day, having 
hired a settler and his team for the purpose, we moved. 
Finding that the "office" of the lumber camp was in good 
repair and would afford us comfortable and commodious 
quarters, we established ourselves in it, left our tent in its 
bag and tied the dogs up in a root house. 
The character of the country was the usual one in 
Parry Sound and Muskoka, alternate hogback ridges of 
Laurentian granite and gullies. About a mile to the north 
was a large creek or small river, and between us and it 
was green bush out of which the best of the pine had 
