^70 
FOHEST AND STMAM. 
relatively small number of men, Bcattered over a large 
territory. Their acquaintance with one another is neces- 
sarily limited, and the inauguration of such a movement 
demands leaders. How shall it be done? Who shall start 
it? How shall leaders be found? 
Forest and Stream has done many a service to sports- 
men and guides; why should it not do this? If you, with 
your experience and knowledge, would take hold of this 
thing there would seem good ground for believing that it 
inight be made a success. Fight and hard work would 
undoilbtedly be called for, but you can give that as well 
as any one. My own experience is limited to two points 
in the State, covers a period of nine years, and includes 
an aciquaintance with only a dozen or so of the guides, 
but among these are some incomparable men, and from 
that experienbe I believe the plan is feasible. 
Suppose you enlist your subscribers and friends who 
arfe interested in game preservation in Maine, and from 
them obtain the names and addresses — as you easily 
fcould— of all, or nearly all, the guides in the State. Who, 
so well as you, could put into shape, in the columns of 
your paper, the outlines of such a scheme/ and so place 
it before these men? And through correspondence, so 
invited from both sportsmen and guides, the leaders 
might be found and the movement well started. A false 
start is worse than none. It is far easier to inaugurate a 
new plan than to revive an old one laid aside. 
I merely offer these suggestions, leaving details to you 
and to the development of further discussion, and ask 
you to give them your careful consideration, and if in 
your judgment an effort can be made with reasonable 
hope of success, act with vigor, and I think you will find 
plenty to help you. A Sportsman. 
A Bullet's Flight. 
Elizabeth City, N. C, Sspt. U— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I send you below the remarkable and peculiar 
deflection of a ball which occurred recently at Buffalo 
City, Dare county, N. C. The circumstances are as fol- 
lows: 
A gentleman who was desirous of doing some bear 
hunting had gotten a mold to cast lead balls for his No, 
12 breech-loading shotgun. After he had molded the bul- 
lets he was rather timid in firing the gun charged with 
this large lead ball, fearing it would burst, so he got a 
native to try the experiment, I believe there was S^rdrs. 
of powder used, the lead ball was round and about the 
size of an ounce ball. The man firing stood at A and 
itTMcii nil 
V 
= 1 
i til 
\ 
fired at a large black gum tree at a small board nailed on 
the tree, and which was about 12ft. up the tree. Immedi- 
ately after the shot a man opened the door at D and 
angrily asked who was shooting at his house. About six 
persons were present and all said that the shot had been 
fired away from the house and were surprised at his say- 
ing his house was hit. A short while afterward myself 
and two other gentlemen began a search to see if the matt- 
had any cause for his remarks, as he still insisted as well 
as his wife that their house had been struck, and to the 
surprise of all the ball was found and very little out of 
shaps. The diagram below shows the marks of objects 
struck, and the panel of the door was indented halfway 
through. The ball rebounded to E and was found lying 
on the ground, I measured the distances by tape line. 
Office, store and house all on a line about. 
The cypress tree at C was struck 6ft from the ground, 
and the lower panel of the door was struck about in the 
center! H. P. Greenleaf. 
Spaniel and Partridge in Vermont. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Several years ago we had a law prohibiting the use of 
dogs in .hunting partridges. Its purpose was to prevent 
the murderous practice of treeing partridges with spaniels, 
but in effect pointers and setters were under the ban as 
completely as spaniels. So sportsmen and pot-hunters 
clamored alike against the law until it was repealed. 
Now the State is populous with spaniels. It is safe to say 
that there are fifty to each pointer and setter, and they 
make the killing of partridges a simple matter of sharp 
eyes and dead aim at a stationary object, in which no 
skill or woodcraft is requisite. The woods are full of 
market-shootera, men and boys, who want partridges to 
eat, no matter how got, and sportsmen ambitious to make 
big bags on the same terms, and each and all have their 
yelping spaniels, which not only do duty in the open sea- 
son, but run at large during the spring and summer, at 
liberty to gobble up every nest of eggs and brood of un- 
fledged young ones they come across. The inevitable 
consequence is that partridges are scarce, and so will con- 
tinue to be as long as this evil exists. How is it to be 
abated? Awahsoose. 
Michigan Game. 
Lansing, Mich. , Sept. 26. — Prairie chickens in Michigan 
are very scarce, but early in September Mr Launt Thomp- 
son, Howard Sweet, Jay Peareall, J. P, Lee and C. P. 
Downey shot several in the lowlands norih of Jackson, 
and a little later Mr, Charles Clippinger, Mr. Holmes ana 
some other gentlemen shot two about twenty miles south- 
east of Lansing. Woodcock are very scarce. Ducks have 
not come to our section to any extent. Squirrels are 
plenty. Several parties are being made up for deer hunt- 
ing, and they will leave for northern Michigan as soon 
after they vote sa the train can carry them. Julian. 
Off for the Adirondacks^ 
New York, Sept. 24:,— Editor Forest and Stream: This 
year the Adirondack hounding season, which for all in- 
tents and purposes is the hunting season, opened Oct. 1, 
the same day that the Maine big game season begins. 
Deer are reported to be very abundant, and naturally 
the Adirondacks offer a powerful counter attraction to 
Maine for New York sportsmen. 
On Monday a party consisting of Frfed Sauter, Sr., 
Fred Sauter, Jr., F. Siegler, Wm. Meisenholder and J. 
Wellbrock, of New York; F. B. Ketcham, of East North- 
port, L, I.; Valentine Schmit, of Brooklyn, and W. L. 
Coggswell, of Nutley, N. J., left for Schroon Lake, 
Their hunting grounds will be on the upper Schroon 
RiVer and back to Elk Lake, They will be in one of the 
best partridge sections in the Adirondacks, and conven- 
ient to first-class deer grounds. 
Mr. Ketcham, who is a well-known Long Island hunter, 
reports that the deer on the Island have profited by the 
two years' close season, and that on a recent trip to the 
grounds he noted large numbers of small tracks, proving 
that they had bred prolifically. He thinks that the Long 
-Island hunting this fall will certainly be up to the stand- 
ard of previous years. J. B. B. 
Beed Birds in their I^ests. 
Philadelphia, Sept. 28.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
Pardon me if I venture to criticise your article on reed 
birds in the issue of Sept. 26. The meadows between 
Cape May and Atlantic City are covered with a growth of 
short salt grass; no reed birds ever use them or build 
"warm nests" in them; certainly not in the month of 
September. If you will substitute mud hens for reed 
birds you will shoot a good deal nearer the mark. Mr. 
Chapman will only be misled by the article as published. 
Gunning Skiff. 
[Didymus wrote in jocular vein, and an attempt was 
made to carry out his spirit and to convey in a humorous 
way the fact that the newspaper reporter, who mixed up 
reed birds and rail and mud hens, and talked of reed birds 
being routed from their nests in the marsh, was at sea in 
his ornithology and sportsmanship. It was not deemed 
necessary to label the note as a joke, but the event shows 
that jocularity is not permissible outside of the Camp- 
Fire iiickerings corner.] 
The Dead River Region of Maine. 
Dead River, Me,, Sept. 21.— Mr. C. C. Brooks, of East 
Wilton, who is at the Ledge House for a six or eight 
weeks' stay, occupying Camp Little Bigelow, has opened 
the shooting season in a way that will bother some of our 
crack shots to beat. It was the shooting of two foxes. 
Sta;n4ing just in front of his camp with his ,3240 rifle, a 
three-barreled hammerless gun of his own make and de- 
sign, he shot, off-hand, one of the foxes at 303yds.; the 
second was shot near his camp with a .22cal. rifle of his 
make, ofl' hand, at 150yds. 
Both big and small game of all kinds is far more plenti- 
ful than ever before, and sportsmen are already coming 
in good numbers, and I think that this section of Maine 
will this season lead all other places in the big lists of 
game. a Dead River Guide. 
The Northern Migration. 
New York, Sept. 28 —Editor Forest and Stream: Sept. 
25 a party of Brooklyn sportsmen, including Dr. Ashley 
A. Webber, R. S. Layton, who is in the express business, 
and a druggist whose name has escaped me, left for Joe 
Francis's camps via Norcross. Mr. Maximilian Foster, of 
the World, also goes in by way of Norcross. He has cor- 
responded with Luther Gerrish regarding a trip to Cau- 
comyomoc Lake, wpII up the west branch. Mr. James P. 
Murray, of the U. S. National Bank, has tried the fishing 
in the Ashland region. Mr. W. A, Hoisington, the park 
expert of the Page Woven Wire Fence Co., has designs 
on the moose and big game of Aroostook county, which 
will materialize when the snow flies. J. 
Game in Chenango County, N, Y. 
Greene, Chenango County, N, Y., Sept. 24. — We are 
having very fair success with the rod catching pickerel, 
perch and bass. Our sportsmen are having good sport 
with the gun this fall, bringing in fine bags of birds. 
Partridges have not been so plenty in years as they are 
this fall. One can scarcely go in any woods without 
stirring up more or less of them. Squirrels are very 
plenty, and as soon as the law is off (which will be Oct. 
15) we anticipate good sport. 
Any information as to game and guides will be gladly 
given by addressing L. C. Silvernail. 
Louisiana Quail. 
Opelousas, Jjvl.— Editor Forest and Stream: The 
quail crop this season is a heavy one owing to the long 
dry summer, which has been advantageous to the breed- 
ing of the young birds. I have seen several very large 
bevies and they all appear to be full grown, and fly as 
well as the old bu-ds. 
IN'orth Carolina Wild Turkeys. 
Bowman's Bluff, N. C. , Sept. 24,— This locality is in 
the mountains, 2,5u0ft. high. The season has been un- 
usually good for wild turkeys, which are nearly full 
grown and are plentiful (for this generally poor game 
country). A Constant Reader, 
Freak squirrels promise to be plenty again this year. 
Yesterday Mr. Scholes shot a black squirrel, which is a 
delicate drab color throughout. Mr, Wm. Ward has sent 
to Mr. Munro, to be set up, a chestnut colored black 
squirrel which has a remarkably fine tail of rather 
lighter color than the body, and a red squirrel with a 
white tail. — Belleville Intelligencer, Sept, 19. 
Game Laws in Brief. 
The Game Laws in Brief, current edition, Bold everywhere, has 
new game and flsh laws for more than thirty of the States. It covers 
the entire country, is carefully prepared, and gives all that shooter 0 
and anglers reauire. See advertisement. 
\m mid ^iv^r ^mJjing. 
MEN I HAVE FISHED WITH. 
XIV.— George Ftaynor. 
Those who have followed these bits of personal history 
will not be surprised that a boy who has never shown a 
taste for anything but shooting, fishing and fun of mbst 
any kind that is to be found should exhibit a de- 
cided dislike to be confined by the iron-clad and steisl- 
pivoted rules and regulations of business. Such boys 
usually take to the woods and remain there, preferring 
the simple life of the woodsman, with its independence, 
to all the luxuries of more civilizsd life^ if the latter are 
only to be had by the stern and inexorable demands of a 
business. They often develop into men whom we are 
glad to know and to respect for their knowledge of the 
woods and ite inhabitants, as well as for certain honest 
ways that come to a man removed from the world of 
deceit and suspicion of his kind that is engendered by a 
business life. 
The time came when school was left and business be- 
gan. The happy days were in the past. No more Satur- 
day holiday, and the grind of recording shipping marks, 
weighing goods and signing receipts, when ducks were 
flying down the river and car loads of venison were com- 
ing in, was getting too much to bear. In that vast and 
vague country called the West there was freedom — and 
game. Finding opposition useless, father sent to Michigan 
for his rifle, the one that William and Joe Brockway had 
used for years, and gave it to me when I left. 
Said he, "You may have this rifle, if you are bound to 
go, and the only thing I ask of you is never to join any 
expedition that goes out to murder poor Indians." 
That was an easy thing to promise because there had 
never been such a thought or desire. I was twenty-one 
and bound for the great West, with no definite idea what 
part of it would be best to go to or just what was to be 
done when the journey ended. Pete Loeser, the Ger- 
man boy mentioned in the last history, wanted to go to 
some relatives in Wisconsin, and he went along. At 
Chicago we could decide what would be best to do, and 
there we stuck. 
One day while fishing in the lake off the breakwater an 
old gentleman of eighty years named George Raynor, who 
had frequently fished with us, told me this story: "At the 
rnassacre of Wyoming, in 1778. my old parents were 
killed and I, a boy of about four years old, was taken by 
the Seneca Indians and then sent to Canada by a British 
officer, where I lived with a farmer imtil I ran away and 
shipped on a vessel that went to England. There I worked 
in a cutler's shop and learned the trade. How many 
years passed I don't know, but the desire to get back to 
America' grew strong, and I went to Liverpool and shipped 
for New York. By this time I was a young man, and I 
worked at my trade until I saved money enough to try to 
seek my relatives, if I had any. I remembered a sister 
Susan and a brother John, both older than I, and I longed 
to see them. I had forgotten the name of the place where 
the massacre occurred and did not know in what State it 
happened. There was an indistinct recollection of an 
alarm at night, a hurrying to arms, and the burning of 
buildings and killing of people. I had kept a little pic- 
ture book with my name in it. One day a lady came in 
the New York shop and bought some cutlery to be shipped 
to some point in Luzerne county. Pa. The name of the 
place seemed familiar, and I talked with her. She knew 
of my people, and the result was that I went there and 
aftervpard married her daughter — That's what we call 
an eel-pout that Pete's got. The fish is not eatable. Ex- 
cuse me, where was I? O, yes, we prospered and all went 
well until cur eldest boy was killed in the Mexican war 
and our daughter was burned to death in a tire that de- 
stroyed my business a year later, and with my wife and 
only boy I left New York for this place in 1848, In a rail- 
road accident my wife was killed and injuries about my 
head hurt my eyes, so that it was uphill work to make a 
living until my boy William helped out by singing in the 
church choir. Now that I am nearly blind he is my sole 
support. You've heard his wonderful tenor voice in War- 
ner's Hall, on Randolph street, where he now sings with* 
'Northrup's Metropolitan Minstrels.' " 
During this tale the fish had taken my bait unnoticed, 
although Pete had attended to business and taken several 
fish. The story as told by the old man had made me wish 
he would stop, for there was no fun in the way he told it, 
and it had started a leak in my eyes. But down the 
breakwater, an old one not in existence now, came the 
sprightly young tenor, who put his arms around the old 
man's neck and kissed him, saying: "Well, father, what 
luck to-day?" 
"Billy," said the old man, "I fear I have not fish enough 
for breakfast; I have been telling your friend the family 
history because he seemed to take interest in it, and I for- 
got to put my line out. Here is the hook and the bait by 
my side now. My old eyes do not see well enough to tell 
if a hook is baited or not, and certainly cannot see if the 
line is in the water or is coiled up at my feet. Now, 
Fred, don't you honestly think that an old man who has 
lived his life and can't see — " 
"Here, father, stop that. You must meet the infirmities 
of age and accident in a philosophical manner. I can 
and will care for you while I have life and strength, and 
I don't want to hear any more of that talk." 
The young man baited his father's line and we fished 
on. This eel-pout, as he called it, was a new fish to me 
then, and its long, flattened head and eel-like fins made 
it an object to be remembered. This specimen was 20in. 
long. Pete said: "Py chimminyl he's cot a whisker on 
his chin, so like a pullhead on'y de pullhead he cot fife 
Oder six." And this was a wonder to us, for there were 
no fish with barbels where we had fished except the bull- 
head or catfish.^ We found the fish quite common in the 
lake. In other parts it is called "lawyer," "ling," and has 
several names besides that of Lota, which the scientists 
have taught us to believe is its true name. Twirling the 
sinkers vertically, and letting go at the proper time, we 
cast our bait as far as possible from the breakwater and 
hauled in hand under hand, and a good-sized pike perch 
or a big eel-pout made quite a fight at the end of a long 
line. Even the common yellow perch ran larger than we 
were accustomed to see them, and we green Eastern boys 
voted it the finest fishing we ever had. 
Mr. Raynor told me that there was very good fishing in 
the South Branch of the Chicago River near where he 
