466 
FOREST AND STREAM^ 
LDeo. 12, 1896. 
will get most of these sheep or run them out of the coun- 
try. 
A party of four men have been hunting up Hellroar- 
ing Creek; they were traveling with a permit. On their 
way in they had twelve animals loaded with game. They 
have been arrested for killing their meat in the Park and 
are at the Mammoth Hot Springs now awaiting trial. 
Some people won't bpilieve there are any wolves in the 
Park. I saw five in Havden Valley, where Mr. Hough 
and I found the dead buffalo. E. Hofer. 
DEER HUNTING AND DEER LAWS. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Just a few words in regard to the manner in which 
Deerslayer's article in Forest and Stream has been re- 
ceived bv a number of your correspondents. 
First, I wish to state very emphatically that I do not 
approve of Deerslayer's method of takins deer. But 
when a man does not agree with you as to the method to 
be uspd in killing deer it is no reason why he should be 
•'jumped upon" roughshod, and such abusive and insult- 
ing terms as "butcher," "human fiend" and "brute" 
showered upon him. Without doubt every correspondent 
who has abused and insulted Deerslayer could call to 
mind the time in his sporting career when he was not 
above taking a pot shot at a bunch of quail, or even shoot- 
ing a deer in the water with a scatter gun. I have as 
friends men who shoot game birds sitting or make pot 
shots when they get a chance, yet they are men of honor. 
What they lack, and undoubtedly what Deerslayer lacks, 
ia education in their sport. Help them up to the higher 
plane of sportsmanship by kinds words of advice and 
common-sense argument. If you wish to convert a man 
to your religious or political faith you do not abuse or in- 
sult him, but bring to bear your most convincing and 
conclusive arguments, couched in pleasant words. Gen- 
tlemen, if you were in camp in the wilds of the Rockies, 
with a man for guide who differed in opinion with you as 
to the proper method of taking game, you might argue 
with him, but you would not insult him. 
Let us hope that the pages of America's best and clean- 
est sportsman's journal may not again be soiled with such 
insults as have been flung at Deerslayer, and all because 
God has not made him to see as we see, or think as we 
think. John C. Brigqs. 
Iowa. 
Dec. 3 — Editor Forest and Stream: The battle royal 
that has followed on Deerslayer's description of his 
method of hunting has developed again a phase of sports- 
manship that is very distasteful to those who have the 
benefit of education and refined associations. It is like- 
wise one of the few things that a Forest and Stream 
reader has to sometimes regret seeing in his favorite 
paper. I do not refer to Deerslayer's style of bunting, 
but to the style of the criticisms he has raised. Person- 
ally I have never killed a deer, nor fired at one, chiefly 
because I have never, but on one day, been within range 
of any. On that occasion I had my rifle on one side of 
me and my camera on the other, paddling in a canoe 
around a Canadian lake, amusing myself doing nothing. 
Two deer came out of some reeds and brush and stood for 
a moment looking at me from the shore, and I photo- 
graphed them fairly well. Then they went upon their 
way. I wanted a picture of wild deer most. Next I 
would have liked a shot at nne, but the second desire 
yielded to the most ardent. To shoot a deer I have got- 
ten within reach of by skill or endurance or nerve on my 
- part would give me greater pleasure than to shoot one 
that came into my tent and couldn't get out. If he were 
tied up to a tree I would enjoy it still less. I don't think 
that I would care for Deerslayer's method at all, in fact I 
am quite sure that I would not, but right there arises the 
question as to whether my different taste givps me the 
right to assail him with outrageous language and epithets, 
as some of your correspondents have done. To express 
in a public print the hope that a man's gun will burst and 
kill him, because he catches a deer with a rope, is a form 
of controversy closely resembling rowdyism. For the 
sake of your old-time prestige I was sorry to see some of 
these letters in your columns. Mr. Cleveland's manly 
apology disarms criticism, to a certain extent, of all his 
co-offenders as well as of himself, and I will turn away 
from the whole greatly to be regretted matter, with relief, 
to speak of the question that is at the bottom of all disputes 
as to the proper manner in which deer and other game 
should be taken. 
In the first place, all citizens of a State have an equal 
right to its game. If it runs or flies on public lands they 
have an equal right to go there and hunt it. Scores of 
years ago the number of deer in the Adirondacks and 
elsewhere so greatly outnumbered the hunters whom the 
facilities of those days enabled to hunt them, and the 
number of deer born every year so greatly exceeded 
those killed or dying from natural causes, that there was 
no need of a law for their protection. Every man took 
what he pleased, if he could, and no one noticed the 
difference. Now, however, all is changed. In the last 
fifteen or twenty years railroad improvements have made 
it so easy for even women and children and invalids to 
reach the wildest hunting grounds that the number of 
hunters has increased, doubled and tripled with the years 
in geometrical progression. Coincident with the increase 
ia the army of hunters came the greater range and power 
of the weapons, to say nothing of their being repeaters. 
Formerly a man rarely got two shots at one deer. Now 
he gets three or four frequently. All these things, natu- 
rally enough, have led to a steady decrease in the number 
of the deer— a decrease so steady in proportion to the 
hunters that there is brought before us the unmistakable 
possibility of having no deer left at all. Then we begin 
to enact laws to secure the killing of less game than 
formerly, in the hope that the natural increase of the 
animals will keep pace with the loss by means of the 
hunters. 
Now we reach our point. The sole object of the law is 
to prevent too great a number of the deer being killed. 
That is its essence, and certain methods are only forbid- 
den because they make it so easy to capture the game 
that a greater number of deer that we can spare would 
be annually killed if those means were used. Any 
method that does not possess this same fault is perfectly 
justifiable and its employment purely a matter of taste. 
Now for Deerslayer's deed. He, by means usually em- 
ployed in the Adirondacks, drove (or had driven for him) 
a deer into the water. Then he porsaed it in a canoe, 
and on catching up with it tied a halter roimd its neck to 
secure it when shot. Then he or some one else shot it. 
Everything, excepting the use of the rope, was exactly 
according to the regular method of Adirondack deer 
hounding. If they were near enough to the animal to 
put a cord around him they could hardly have missed 
him with any kind of gun. Therefore the act in no way, 
however slight, increased the destruction of the game. 
Personally I cannot see much amusement in pursuing deer 
in a canoe, because if you get so very close to them the 
only part of the chase which is in the sportsman's own 
hands — namely, the shooting — is so easy that there is 
little pleasure and no cause at all fox a feeling of hunter's 
pride in it. That is my own view of the matter and 
doubtless some of Deerslayer's rather hasty critics possess 
the same, but I respectfully call their attention to the 
fact that such dogmatic laying down of the law as they 
have done lately is quite as likely to be the result of 
boorish egotism as of pure sportsmanship. 
Keep to the essential point, gentlemen. The number of 
deer killed annually is of more importance to coming 
generations of hunters than is the way in which they 
were killed. If I leave a son, I have no doubt if he has 
my blood in his veins he will like to hunt above all things, 
and he would be better pleased that the sportsmen of 
to-day had killed a couple of hundred Adirondack deer 
annually by lassoing than a couple of thousand by shoot- 
ing. There is the whole matter in a nutshell. Let us con- 
fine ourselves to a thorough examination of these matters 
and to the enacting of laws for the better preservation of 
our game, but let us be equally careful to avoid what is 
none of our business. If Deerslayer chooses to secure his 
legal number of deer per year in a manner which is actu- 
ally more diificult than the usual one, as it clearly must 
be, let him do so in peace, and let us devote our energies 
to getting on the trail of the men who take more than 
their share with the cleanest kind of stalking and shoot- 
ing. Through it all let us leave aside all-aged, catch- 
gallery phrases of "butcher" and the like, and discuss the 
matter politely and with due regard to the courtesy which 
improves every relation in life, and alone makes social 
intercourse between those who disagree tolerable. 
Frank Laitrence Donohue. 
MAINE AND ITS BIG GAME. 
Boston, Dec. 5. — Another flood of deer is arriving by 
the way of the American Express Co. from the wilds of 
Maine. There have been several tracking snows of late 
and each is followed, in a day or two, by a number of 
deer reaching Boston. Prices are very high in the 
markets, and the temptation is strong to the sportsman 
not over rich in this world's goods to sell his venison. I 
hear of a deer sold by a hunter just returned from Maine 
to a hotel for $30. But as the season advances the deer 
are getting poorer in flesh, and it seems almost a pity 
that the open season does not close with Dec. 1. Very 
few moose are arriving just at present. By the train 
reaching Boston Monday evening there came seven deer, 
with a great many saddles and parts of deer. The next 
day there were about as many, but since that time only 
two or three to a train. 
J. Parker Whitney, well known to the readers of the 
Forest and Stream, went up to his camp home at Mos- 
quito Brook, Richardson Lake, Me., on Tuesday last. He 
was accompanied by his family and a friend. He went 
in via Bamis, and from thence to the Upper Dam. The 
weather was cold and the lake very likely to freeze, but 
Capt. F. C. Barker got him through to the Dam without ac- 
cident. Capt. B. then immediately drew hissteamers out 
for winter. All the other boats on the Rangeleys are out 
for the season, and those waters will doubtless be closed be- 
fore this reaches the eye of the reader. Mr. Whitney will 
remain at his camp till the new year. His two sons, in 
Harvard College, will spend Christmas with him. A trail 
is to be cut from Bemis to Mr. Whitney's camps suffi- 
ciently good for the passage of a team in winter. The 
distance is five or six miles through an unbroken forest. 
From Mr. Whitney's to the Upper Dam there is already a 
fair trail, the distance being about two miles. 
Mr. E. M. Gillam's hunt for quaU in Jersey was a fairly 
successful one. He met his brother, of the Philadelphia 
Record, at their old home, and both had their favorite 
dog. They hunted the quail sections about Vineland 
faithfully, having fair success. Then they tried some of 
the quail sections of eastern Pennsylvania. Here the 
hunting was novel and new to Mr. Gillam, of Boston, the 
shooting being almost entirely from open fields instead of 
woods and thickets. They found the lands generally 
posted with "All shooting forbidden," and it took a good 
deal of persuasion and "standing up" to get the farmers' 
consent to allow their lands to be shot over. In one case 
the Gillam boys thought they had permission to hunc all 
right, and raised a flock of thirty or forty quail. E. M. 
drew his bird with both barrels, and his brother followed 
suit, but before their dogs could retrieve the birds they 
saw an angry farmer coming, accompanied by a big New- 
foundland dog. The dog was savage, and immediately 
seized upon both dogs and proceeded to punish them most 
unmercifully. The burly farmer was also ready to pun- 
ish the owners of the dogs, and it took a good deal of 
palaver, accompanied by a greenback, to pacify him. At 
the best the boys had to leave the quail they had shot, but 
they got a good number on the whole trip, making a 
record of over forty. 
Sfcill the hunters are going to Maine, and doubtless will 
be till the end of the open season on big game. Partridge 
shooting is unlawful in that State after Dec. 1, and it is 
hoped that the gunners after big game will leave the 
birds to breed. Messrs. Wayne H. North, Dr. Frederick 
Freeman, Bart Atkins and M. D. Cressey started for Ash- 
land on the Aroostook Railroad last evening. From Ash- 
land they are to go forty miles into the Alagash country. 
They are taken in charge at Ashland by Asa Rafford, 
their principal guide. Their principal camp is to be at 
Pratt Lake. They go for moose, though deer and caribou 
will be accpted. 
A dispatch to the daily papers gives a thrilling account 
of a Wilton, Me,, man with a moose in the Dead River 
country last week, where a party of four was engaged in 
hunting. They had already secured three deer when one 
morning LeonJBump came upon a cow moose, which he 
allowed to escape. Qaickly he saw a big bull. Firing 
two shots, he only angered the beast, and it immediately 
made a rush for him. The report says that the man waa 
so paralyzed with fear that he could scarcely move, but 
did raise his rifle and fire again, stopping the moose when 
only 6ft. away. In the party were Leon Bump, E. C. 
Bump, Guy Fernald and Dr. C. F, Rowell. 
The newspapers also have it that W. K. Moody, with his 
brother. Prof. J. F. Moody, of the Auburn (Me.) High 
School, has been down to Bemis, Me., on a deer hunt, and 
that Capt. F. C. Barker hunted with them. They struck 
Bemis the night before Thanksgiving, and it was snowing. 
The next morning it was dull and foggy, but there were 
3in. of new snow on the ground — the ideal condition for 
deer hunting. The hunters were off early, and it did not 
take long to strike tracks. A big buck was shot on the 
side of the mountain, with two or three other ineffectual 
shots obtained. The most singular feature about the buck 
was the fact of his having but one antler. There was a 
stub about 4in. long for the other. It had evidently been 
broken off when in the velvet, as it was entirely healed. 
The next day the snow nearly all went away, leaving the 
hunting poor. This weather was followed by a freeze that 
rendered hunting very difficult by reason of the crashing 
of the leaves and underbrush at every step. 
Dispatches to the newspapers complain of a good deal 
of illegal shooting of deer in Maine, and shipment by 
underground railway to the Boston markets. I have oc- 
casion to go through these markets almost every day, 
and so far I have failed to find the usual signs of illegal- 
ly killed and shipped venison as numerous as usual. So 
far venison has been scarce, though some has been ob- 
tained from sportsmen who have sold their deer in order 
to help out on the expenses of their hunting trips, as 
already noted. It may be that there is yet a good deal 
of illegally shipped venison to reach the Boston markets, 
but so far I cannot see that the quantity has been as 
great as usual. Prominent market men, thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the venison business, will indorse my 
statements. 
I intended to have mentioned further up that Bemis is 
a very easy point for the hunter to reach in the big game 
section of Maine. One reaches that peculiar lumbering, 
hunting and fishing city in the woods in the early even- 
ing, via Portland & Rumford Falls and Rumford Falls 
& Rangeley Lakes railways. Capt. Fred C. Barker takes 
excellent care of the sportsmen, and it is like living at 
a good home, and yet right in the big game woods. J. 
A. French, well known to sportsmen formerly going 
to the Rangeleys via Andover, is at Bemis with forty 
men in lumber camps, and with a contract to get out 
2,000,000ft. of spruce. But he is going deer hunting on the 
next good snow. Special. 
Lebanon, N. H., Dec. 5.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
A party of nine sportsmen from this place and vicinity, 
members of the Sagamore Gun Club, who have a camp 
on Birch Island, Holeb Lake, Maine, have just returned 
from a week's trip to that locality, bringing with them 
fourteen deer — a good showing, as the snow was not in 
the best condition for tracking on account of a light 
crust. They report plenty of game in that region. 
W. S. C. 
New York. — My chum and I have recently returned 
from a shooting trip in the northern part of Maine, and 
as it proved most successful I thought perhaps some of 
the readers of your interesting journal might like a short 
account of it. We went in from Ashland to one of Mr. 
C. G. Reed's camps, situated on the south branch of the 
Machias River, where we remained just fourteen days, 
bringing out with us four deer, one moose and one cari- 
bou. I have hunted in many parts of Maine, but never 
before have seen so favorable a spot for game of all 
kinds. 
We both wish to highly recommend Mr. Reed, who 
tried in every way to make our stay in his camp agreeable 
as well as successful; and as for the guides he furnished 
us with— Ralph Morse and A. F. Hoffses, both of Mapleton, 
Me. — I can only say they are two of the best hunters and 
all-round guides I have ever had experience with. 
You will find inclosed an account of my moose hunt, 
which I would be greatly pleased to have printed in 
Forest and Stream for the edification of other amateur 
moose hunters, who may be benefited by some of my 
mistakes. Leonidas Westervelt. 
. [Mr. Westervelt's moose hunt is described in another 
column.] 
ARKANSAS AND THE SOUTH. 
Little Rook, Ark., Dec. 4. — The eagerly anticipated 
rain that was to fill up our marshes and streams finally 
came, and for a whole week it did nothing but rain, so 
that there is now plenty of water in our duck marshes. 
The knowing ones then said that all that was necessary 
was for the rain to break up with a cold snap, and we 
would have a good flight of ducks. This too came, and 
with it the ducks also, but the thermometer rapidly ran 
down below freezing, and remained so for five days. The 
natural consequence was that aU our marshes and lakes 
froze, and remained in that state so long as to drive 
all the ducks further south. Thus the flight that 
should have afforded good sport remained only a day, and 
our duok shooting for this season is now a thing of the 
past. It is quite likely that the shooting is now good in 
Florida, Louisiana and Texas, as freezing temperature is 
reported as far south as San Antonio, and the shooting 
must now be fine (5n the Texas coast. 
Quail. 
The sportsmen of the South will now turn their atten- 
tion to the quail, and as the crop is unusually abundant 
in Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, 
there is not much question where to go in order to get 
good shooting. Mr. Harry Stevenson informed me while 
at the Vicksburg shoot that quail shooting was good in 
the vicinity of Monroe, La., and that they never went a 
great way from the city to do their shooting. Mr. Frank 
Arrighi told me that it was not a difficult task to find 
from fifteen to twenty bevies in a day's hunt within a 
short distance of Natchez, Miss. At Vicksburg, too, the 
birds were plentiful, and Mr. Will Miller and Mr. Brad- 
field told me that they had had some fine sport with the 
birds this fall. All along the line of the Yazoo Valley 
R. R. good shooting is to be had, and a man can not go 
much amiss in any part of Mississippi. Lacaily the birds 
are plentiful, but not much attention has been paid to 
them, as the weather up to the present cold snap has 
been too warm, But now that there is frost in the air 
and all the vegetation has been kiUed off, they will get 
little rest until March 1. 
