Deo, 19, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
489 
bloodthirsty slaughter, with no element of skill involTed 
to give the performance the semblance of pportemanship. 
Why, man alive, it was only a week ago that my yoimgest 
wife and her fawn were driven thirty miles, shot at on 
three runways, and finally, my wife deciding to risk tak- 
ing our child into the deep water of the lake, were pur- 
sued by a man in a boat, shot at four times at a distance 
of 15 or 20; t., only escaping through the awkwardness of 
the hunttir, a city sport, who overturned the boat in his 
excitement and had to swim for his life to the shore, 
where he sat shivering until a guide came along in a 
boat and took him back to camp, where he washed dishes 
for the remainder of his stay. 
"What chance has a deer in the water? Tell me, will 
you? 
'■How many deer were killed in the Adirondacks last fall, 
and how many were killed last month, last week, yester- 
day, and how many are being killed to-day in the lakes, 
ponds and rivers of this great mountain country by red 
devils of hell, who row up to us in boats and kill us with 
gun, revolver, knife, axe, club, oar, anything that is 
handiest? How many, I say?" The old Buck had jumped 
to .his feet in his frenzy and was pawing up the eod and 
stamping furiously. 
'•Don't sit there and stare at me, man I How many 
were murdered in the water last year? 'Hundreds,' do 
you sa\ ? 'Huudredb' — ^yes, and thousands — thousands, I 
say. Dj you hear? And if it coatinues I prophesy ex- 
tinction for us. Not in my time, but soon — soon." 
The Buck trotted up and down for a minute or two, 
snorting, shaking his head and making that peculiar 
whistling noise we all know so well, and after a final 
snort came and lay down at my feet again, 
I thought I would give the old fellow time to cool out, 
so I sat perfectly still and looked at the rt flection of the 
buck's autlers in the polished blued steel just above the 
grip on my rjfle. They were immense, and there were 
twelve prongs on one side and eleven on the other side. 
In a few moments his sides stopped heav^ing, and he 
said, quietly enough: 
"And jacking? What of that?" 
"As to jacking," said I, "there is little to be said. If 
skill plays any part m this mode of hunting it is the 
skill of the paddler who sends the canoe on so quietly, 
and who knows when and where to strike. It is not the 
skill of the ruffian masked in the shadows of the night, 
who hunts kneeling in the bottom of the canoe, with a 
murderous shotgun in his hands. Any child can kill a 
I deer in that way." 
"Yes," said the Buck, "and many have been killed thus. 
[ My son Spike, the unfortunate fellow — he would have 
been three years old this fall — came down to the lake to 
drink — we were living on Otowana Lake at that time — 
and the poor fellow had but put his dry lips in the cool 
■water when there came a blinding fiash, a great noise, 
and — but I won't weary you with his sad story. They 
killed him. He was a promising boy." 
A tear trickled down the brown cheek and sank into 
the dry earth. 
I forbore speaking until he should have controlled him- 
self, and then said as sympathetically as I could, "I am 
sorry we should have chosen a subject which is necessa- 
rily 80 painful to you, and I trust you will believe me when 
I say that I am deeply touched by the little you have told 
me of your son's tragic death at the hands of these mock 
sportsmen. I feel sure he would have been a credit to 
these noble woods and hills, and to you also." 
"Ha was valedictorian of his class at Maroy Hall," said 
the Buck, "and he held the inter- woods championship at 
high jumping. I am an old buck and 1 have other sons, 
buD Spike was my first-born. Well," with a deep sigh as 
though dismissing the harrowing memoirs, "you and I 
coincide as to jacfiing at any rate, and as to hounding we 
are both partially right. Of the two I would rather be 
' hounded. But the key to all this is simple, the answer is 
plain, and it is— protection. Grive us protection for three 
or four years, and I'll warrant the deer will be thick 
enough to insure success to the greenest of still-hunters. 
Protect us, I say, for five years," and here he stepped up 
and tapped me on the shoulder with his forefoot, "protect 
us, I Say, for five years; yes, for three, or even—" what a 
strong forefoot that was, to be sure, and it seemed to take 
hold of me like a hand. "Why, Sam, what in the— stop, 
will you— you brute— ugh," as a quart of icy cold brook 
water went down my back, "can'c you let a fellow alone? 
Confound it, man, I'll set that buck on you. Leggo, will 
you?" 
"Buck?" said Sam's cheery voice. "I guess not; no 
buck here now. You are a pretty watcher. Didn't you 
I hear Biuecoat? Come down here." 
I "I heard Biuecoat," said I with dignity, "and so did 
. the Buck, but he said he'd stop at Horseshoe, and he did; 
, and I wish you'd stop dragging me along in this man- 
I ner." 
"Come, wake up, wake up, old man," laughed Sam, 
"or maybe you'd like another bath. No? Here, what do 
you think of that ? Oh, you are coming out of your tor- 
por, eh ?' 
-Slashing old buck track, isn't it? And here's another 
track— dog track — that's Biuecoat, and you sound asleep 
all the timel On, the boys won't do a thing- to you to- 
night. I'm afraid not J 
"Old Biuecoat came right through the marsh, swam the 
Horseshoe [so the Buck was mistaken after all], and 
brought him right to your feet, and you slept calmly 
througU it all. 
"It's your loss," continued Sam, "and he must have 
liad eight on a side." 
"Twelve on one side," I started to say, but I didn't 
want another bath, so I kept silent. 
And the funny part of it all is that it is all true- all 
but the dream. Edwakd Sidney Eawson. 
Port Richmond, N. Y. 
RufiTed. Grouse. 
Mr. E. W. Messenger, of Boston, Mass., reports the 
partridge snooting in DUe vicinity of Wilton, N. H,, un- 
usually fine this season. Mr. Messenger recently made 
several trips to this neighborhood, hunting in company 
with his cousin, Mr. E E Low, of Wilton. 
L^st year a great many birds were snared, and one man 
is said to have cleared $400 from the sale of partridges 
taken in this way. ThtJ sportsmen, however, have suc- 
ceeded in putting an end to the snaring, with the result 
of a great improvement in the game supply, J, B. B. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Animals for the Zoo. 
Chicago, 111. , Dec. 12,— On the evening of Dec, 8 Mr. 
E.-Hofer, of Gardiner, Mont., arrived in Chicago with a 
shipment of animals for the National Zoological Gardens, 
at Washington, D, C, which he mentions in his commu- 
nication of last week. Mr, Hofer had in the express car 
eight antelope, two black bears, one elk and four beaver, 
to say nothing of a bushy-tailed pack rat of the regula- 
tion Rocky Mountain thief brand. All the animals were 
in splendid condition and apparently standing the trip as 
well as could be expected, though they must have been 
well tired down. They are all this spring's animals ex- 
cept the beaver, one of which is a very large and old one, 
also a trifle belligerent, as he showed very plainly when 
asked to shake hands. The beaver were kept in a big 
store box, wired to prevent their gnawing out, and no 
tank was on hand for their convenience, as was the case 
in the earlier shipment of beaver made by Mr, Hofer. 
They bad water poured over them at feeding times, and 
seemed to enjoy that. They will probably go through all 
right. Billy had along a lot of firewood for them to eat, 
they seeming to be very fond of fuel as food. 
The antelope were packed in slatted crates, each just 
big enough to allow the animal to lie down or to stand up 
without turning around very comfortably. The crate for 
the elk, which was a cow of this year, was naturally a 
pretty big affair, and weighed something over HOOlbs with 
the elk in it. All the ruminants were apparently happy 
and well fed, and each of them seemed to have adopted 
civilized habits, for immediately after dinner each one 
took a chew of gum and kept at it as industriously as a 
Halstead street cashier. When engaged in chewing gum 
an antelope has an odd, whimsical look about its face, 
such as we never see in a mounted head or in a picture of 
the animal. At the corner of an antelope's mouth there 
is a sort of bunch, where the hair sticks out prominently, 
and this, with the full and open eye, gives the creature a 
surprised sort of look. It is always the first duty of a 
taxidermist to take a flat iron and iron out this bunch of 
hair so it will not stick out and look untidy and rough. 
The nose of an antelope is soft and black and moist, and , 
though I suppose a good many people do not know it, the 
tongue and inside of the antelope's mouth is also jetty 
black. Of course everybody, that is to say, everybody but 
the artists who make pictures for the big magazines and 
illustrated weeklies, knows that the eye of an antelope is 
right up against his horn, and not halfway down his 
face, between the horn and the muzzle, as one famous 
artist on Western topics once depicted it, much to Billy 
Hofer's disgust. The tail of the antelope is rarely over 2 
or 3ft. long, but artists do not always know that either. 
I admit that an antelope looks more spirited with a long, 
flowing tan, but it is not really legitimate. Billy told me 
that not long ago in an ambitious pictorial number of a 
publication, which shall be nameless, a certain artist 
painted some elk and gave the cows a good set of horns 
apiece. The artist said the horns didn't cost any more, 
since he had 'em already on, and at first this argument 
was near to being conclusive, because any fellow likes to 
get as much as he can for his money, especially in hard 
times; but finally, after the engraving was made and 
ready to print, some one told the head editor it wouldn't 
do, so they cut the horns off the cows in the plate, and 
you can see now where they did it. But they didn't cut 
ofif the tails, which remain hanging down about to the 
gambrel joints in the picture. An elk's tail is really about 
as long as your thumb, but the management of the illus- 
trated edition decided that as they could get that 3 or 3ft. 
extra for nothing it would be bad business policy to sac- 
rifice it, so they let it go at that. This was magnificent, 
though it wasn't natural history, 
Of the two bears that Billy Hofer had along one was a 
very crusty fellow, and prone to take a section of over- 
coat whenever he got a chance. In the express car the 
antelope were piled up in one end, and me two bear 
crates were placed at one side, guarding the narrow pas- 
sage to the rear of the car, O E course the visitors to the 
car who wanted to see the antelops. would be obliged to 
walk in front of the bear cage, ana as each one passed by 
the cross bear would take toll as seemed to him desirable, 
reaching out a horny paw and swiping anything that 
came by, from a silk dress to a genuine Irish frieze 
ulster. Both these bears were captured by soldiers near 
the Lake Hotel in the Yellowstone Park, who found the 
mother and cubs together near the hotel last spring. 
They set dogs on the old one and the cubs ran up a tree, 
from which they were ingloriously haled down to make 
a Washington holiday, 
I am always glad to see Billy Hofer when he comes to 
Chicago, and always take him out to my ranch here, 
where he shows a vast disposition for wool blankets and 
wide open windows, I think a guest ought to own the 
house, but I don't think he ought to get up at 4 o'clock in 
the morning, which is more than half an hour before I 
ever usually get up, and kick about there being no hot 
water ready for him. I told Billy this, but he said he was 
so used to shaving in a geyser every morning that he 
couldn't get out of the habit. 
A High Pressure Law. 
The new Illinois game bill is what may be called a 
high pressure measure. It will ask a tax on the gun, a 
salaried warden system, a State Ucense for non-residents, 
and a limited season for the sale of game. No Illinois 
game, not even ducks and snipe (heretofore not pro- 
hibited for sale at certain seasons), can be sold, and no 
foreign game can be sold after Jan. 1, The sportsmen 
say they would ask for prohibition of the sale of game 
altogether, but they are afraid they would not get it I 
That is to say, the immediate framers of the bill say so. I 
am disposed to think they might just as well throw in the 
clause for absolute prohibition of game marketing. They 
are quite as likely to get that as some of the other things 
they ask for, and stopping the sale of game is the only 
logical result these days tor any scheme of game protec- 
tion. The supposition of the attaining of some of the 
other things tue new bill asks is enough to call to mind 
the words of the old song, "I Wonder if Dreams Come 
True." 
Meantime, as mentioned earlier, the game dealers have 
formulated a little bill of their own. It is identical with 
that of the sportsmen excepc In the points where it is dia- 
metrically opposite. That is to say, it allows the sports- 
men of Illinois (very good of the dealers, too) to do what 
they like with the game of Illinois, which does not 
amount to a picayune, but says that the sportsmen shall 
allow the dealers all the winter season up to March 1 for 
the sale of such game as they can procure outside the 
State of Illinois. This, being interpreted, means that the 
game dealers will be satisfied if they get everything they 
want, but ask the spoi tsmen to keep their hands off from 
anything the dealers do want. And the sportsmen, good, 
trustful men, are afraid to ask for a clause prohibiting 
the sale of game absolutely, for fear they won't get it. 
The National Game, Bird and Fish Protective Associa- 
tion is behind some of the proposed additions to the Illi- 
nois statutes on fish and game, and it does not intend to 
rest there, but will follow the work to Congress, where 
it is confidently expected that Congressman White, of 
Chicago, and Senator Shelby M. Cullom, of Illinois, will 
favor the passage of an amendment to the Inter-State 
Commerce laws prohibiting the shipment of game from 
any State whoso laws make such shipment illegal. This 
would be an excellent thing if it were accomplished. 
This would then be a better land, I was at a little festi- 
val of song the other evening, and a very good soprano 
sang a song called the Batter Land, and the refrain of it 
was, "Not there, not there, my child," I am afraid we 
have not yet come to arrive there, as we say in Chicago. 
No Mast this Year. 
I am told that the Delta country of Mississippi, whete 
the black bears were so numerous last year, has this year 
almost no mast at all, in consequence of which there are 
no bears to be found in all that country, Capt. Bobo is 
practically without an occupation, and expresses doubt 
whether he will ever again see the good old bear days 
which he has known so long in the past. It is supposed 
that the bears have gone to Arkansas or the hereafter. 
Gates Alar. 
Some one whose name I do not know sends in a clip- 
ping from the St. Louis Globe Democrat in regard to these 
bears of the Mississippi Delta cane country, in which there 
is something of interest, especially that portion relating 
to the different varieties of bear known in the South. 
The now accepted "red bear" of Louisiana is mentioned 
explicitly. I have never heard Capt, Bobo speak of this 
red bear at all, but he has often killed the large bears 
mautioned, if they be indeed any different species. He 
says he has killed them weighing over 5001bs, ©it our 
hunt last winter we killed one, as mentioned at the time, 
which seemed very large, though we had no means of 
weighing it. It was a monstrous looking beast as it lay 
on the ground, and we took it to weigh 4501bs. at least. 
The skin, after tanning, measured 7ft. 2m, long. A man 
lying on the ground beside this bear would look like a 
pigmy. I do not remember that it had any white spot on 
the breast, however, and do not recall that the hunters in 
that country spoke of ever seeing a bear so marked. 
The correspondent of the paper mentioned writes enter- 
tainingly as follows: 
"I do not know of anything more interesting than to 
watch a bear steal green corn. As hunters know, a bear 
will always come and go out of a field at the same place 
in the fence if not alarmed or disturbed. The cornfields 
in this country are very large, ranging from 600 to 1,000 
acres. After climbing up on the fence and carefully re- 
connoitering the country as far as he can see, if nothing 
alarming is in sight the bear climbs down on the other 
side very much as an old lady would. He will begin then, 
next to the fence, taking two rows, breaking down the 
cornstalks right and lett until he has eaten all of the 
juicy, milky ears that he wants. Then he leisurely re- 
traces his steps, always climbing over the fence where he 
came in, and waddles to his den to take a nap. In the 
month of August, several years ago, the bears became such 
a nuisance on Mr. Richardson's Hushpuckany plantation 
that he was obliged to do somethmg to save his corn crop- 
So he employed a man in his neighborhood, who under- 
stood the ways and customs of bears, to abate the nuisance 
if possible. He abated it to some extent by killing thirty 
bears in one month, and ten or twelve in September, 
when the corn became too hard to be longer tempting, 
"There are in the further South three varieties or kinds 
of bear. First, there is the ordinary brown bear, com- 
mon in the wilder sections of our country from the Can- 
ada border to the Gulf of Mexico; its usual weight is 
from 300 to 3501bs. Then there is in Louisiana, Mississippi 
and sometimes in the southern Arkansas canebrakes and 
swamps a big, perfectly black bear. It is generally 
marked by a white horseshoe on its breast. This bear 
will weigh from 400 to 680lbs, The writer saw one 
weighed on an accurate set of scales, made for weighing 
bales of cotton, to be found at all steamboat landings, 
which pulled down the beam at the 680 notch. It was 
killed in the great Atchafalaya swamp by an experienced 
hunter, who declared that this was not the ordinary bear, 
but of a different family. Third, and rarest of all South- 
ern bears, is what all hunters call the red bear. This 
one is a long animal, nearly as slender as a panther and 
the color of a red steer. It can swim like an otter and 
outrun any pack of bear dogs that ever followed a trail. 
Most hunters have seen this bear, and differ about its 
family; but whether it and its congener, the big black 
bear, are simply varieties of the same species, changed in 
sizB and form by their environments, I am not naturedist 
enough to decide. Tne red bear lives only in the Yazoo 
swamp of Mississippi, and the big Atchafalaya swamp of 
Louisiana, The large black bear is common in the Louis- 
iana lowlands back of tbe big cotton and sugar planta- 
tions, along the Mississippi River and its tributaries, in the 
States mentioned," 
The acientihc gates seem ajar now for the bear family, 
and we may have all the new sorts we want. 
Where "Forest and Stream" Is Read. 
Three weeks ago I had occasion to mention in these 
columns a bit of news taken from a letter handed me by 
Mr. William Werner, of this city, from Mr, E. H. Bisby, 
of Dder Park, Tex., which ran to the effect that Mr, Bisby 
knew where he could find a bevy of quail or so if he were 
pushed. To-day Mr. Werner hands me a second letter 
from Mr. Bisby, which states that he has "six or eight let- 
ters from men in different parts of the country" saying 
that they had seen it stated in Forest and Stream that 
he could find quail, and asking him what arrangements 
could be made for a hunt. He expressed surprise that so 
brief a mention should produce such a swift result. None 
of these letters to him were written with my knowledge, 
and I cannot tell within 1,000,POO or so how many mea 
