68 
[Jan. 23, 1897. 
MAINE'S PROTECTIVE MEASURES. 
Boston, Mass., Jan 14 — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Some effective legislation ought to be adopted in the State 
of Maine to prevent the extermination of moose and cari- 
bou. It is the opinion expressed by the best informed 
hunters and guides there, that not seventy-five bull moose 
remain in the State. I would like to see a law passed to 
prevent the killing of any moose for five years, under a 
penalty of fine and imprisonment. Sach a period of ex- 
emption from danger would not be too long for needed 
recuperation. 
The newspapers of New England have extended invita- 
tions to people everywhere to come to Maine for hunting 
and fishing, and the railroads now take their passengers 
to the very hearts of the forest. It has so become possible 
for a much larger clas^ in our communities than formerly 
to visit these hunting grounds, for fatigue, delays and ex- 
pense have been reduced to a minimum. And the peril 
to the moose has as the conse quence been tremendously 
augmented. The hunters who follow the moose in the 
enow will pursue him till the last moose or caribou is 
taken, if they are permitted. These winter hunters bring 
very little money into the State, and any fair considera- 
tion of the subject ought to convince one that the advan- 
tages to result from preserving this noble game far out- 
weigh any benefit to be derived from the December visits 
of the hunters. 
It would be the part of discretion to shorten the open 
time for hunting of all game, partridge included, say to 
the interval between Sept. 20 and Dec. 1, instead of to 
the end of December, as it is now established. Even with 
this additional restriction the protection will probably 
prove insufficient; and the sportsman who cannot be 
satisfied with seventy days of hunting should simply be 
invited to go to some other State for further sport. 
It it is possible to pass a law to prevent carrying any 
firearms into the woods during the close time, it would 
be more efficient legislation than some adopted in the 
past. No man carries a gun wpighing 7 to Olbs. at that 
time unless he intends to use it. It is idle to suggest that 
he carries it for protection, for there is no animal in the 
State of Maine of which he need be afraid, Even a bear 
will attack no man unless first wounded, or unless cubs 
are molested. The best way to prevent an improper use 
of the gun is to prohibit its being carried at all during 
the closed period. 
The Legislature would be wise to make more liberal ap- 
propriation for the protection of fish and game. There Is 
much Work to be done to enforce present laws, and the 
State owes it to herself that they should not become inop- 
erative or only occasionally operative. Present supplies 
of game and fish should not be diminished, and the ap- 
propriations by the State ought to be sufficient to prevent 
all fishing through the ice, and to protect trout and salmon 
on their spawning beds as thoroughly as possible. 
D. H. BliANCHARD. 
FOXES ON THE EASTERN SHORE. 
I CANNOT refrain from saying a word on the subject of 
fox hunting since seeing our Jersey friend having such 
nice fun in this the most rational of all amusements. 
When he hears the hounds even an old plug will break 
from his stall and go fox himting, while not one has ever 
been known to go quail or duck shooting of his own will. 
Our country, the Eastern shore, presents perhaps the 
best advantages for this eport of any to be found. The 
country is as level as a billiard table; there are no rocks, 
nor any difficult streams to ford, while the red fox is 
plentiful and can always be raised if one gets out by 6 
or 8 A. M. ^ 
Gaged foxes afford but poor eport. They seem to get 
stiff from confinement, which is, however, due more to 
their efforts while in captivity to escape than it is to being 
cramped. I have never known a caged fox to hold on 
longer than three hours and cover more than thirty 
miles, while in a large majority of cases if the dogs are 
fleet the chase amounts to no mrre than a rabbit hunt. 
Fox hunting to me is equally interesting whether I 
study the habits of the fox in evading his pursuers or the 
sagacity of the dogs in settling highly important questions 
as to which way reynard has gone. And then the music 
in worth to me far excels that of Ole Bull and Blind 
Tom. In fact, everything connected with fox hunting is 
good matter-of-fact common sense. 
To determine on a cold trail which way the fox has 
gone is a thing that can only be done by a thoroughbred, 
well-trained bound, and the man is yet to be born who 
can satisfactorily tell how the hound does it. I recall one 
hunt in Upshur's Neck, and it was on this occasion that I 
became so deeply interested in animal sagacity. It was a 
cold, bleak morning, and already past 6 when we 
reached Matchapungo Creek shore, where a trail was 
sure to be found. We had twenty dogs, among which 
was Ames's dog Ruler. On reaching the usual place of 
striking a trail, Ruler was seen to raise his bristles, almost 
burying his nose ih the half frozen sand. 
"There is a trail," said Ames, but Ruler had not yet 
made the fact known. When he finally opened the other 
dogs were attracted, but not one could touch it; not even a 
whine came from a single one of them. Here the hunts- 
man had an opportunity of selecting the best dog to breed 
from for nose, a very important matter. The whole 
party were present, sitting on their horses watching the 
dog's actions. 
The creek shore runs north and south. The dog would 
go north 100yds. perhaps from where we stood, then 
south, passing us the same distance; doing this half a dozen 
times perhaps, and occasionally opening. Not another 
dog gave utterance yet to a whine. Finally the old fel- 
low had made his prognosis, and slowly sauntered down 
the creek shore, occasionally opening. Leaving the bleak 
sand, which the fox had done many hours before, no 
doubt, Ruler entered a skirt of pine where Turlington's 
bitch Fury began crying, and on down four or five miles 
they raised the fox, and caught him in five or six hours. 
Now this instinct— for it is certainly not an acquirement 
—is a fit study for learned men, and is an interesting part 
of the sport. 
The fox's habit of retracking himself is a very interest- 
ing part of the hunt. This is an admixture of instinct 
nd sagacity. The fox has never acquired the knowledge 
OBsessed by the rabbit of making a circle and running 
the rear of the dogs; still the fox has his tricks. On 
e occasion of a certain hunt I did not get off. The 
ye, howQvev, raiaed a fox, Ismwiug pretty well 
where I could pet to get a sight of the chase, I walked 
through a woods road half a. mile, and after waiting a 
short time heard the fox breaking brush. Soon it came 
in view, crossed the road, entered a piece of very open 
timber, and going 200yds. or so, stopped, turned and to a 
line retraced his track, coming to where I could get a 
full view of him; he leaped to th^ windward of his track 
and passed on out of my sight. Of course he did not see 
me. 
The dogs soon came up. Having run but about a couple 
of hours, they were on nettles and drove right on until 
they reached the end of the track, where the fox had 
turned. Here they scattered in every direction, and 
would have lost the day's sport but for old Dick. He was 
a powerful black and tan, with the best of an English 
bull dog, and ears that would have half-soled a pair of 
No. 10 plantation brogans in ante-bellum times. For us 
this sight was a feast. Old Dick was some half mile be- 
hind the pack. He had traveled; he was not there for a 
frolic; he was there to do his work well. I remained mo- 
tionless. Dick came up, not trailing to leeward, as dogs 
generally do, but right down on the very footstep of the 
fox. He passed on, followed the trail out to where the 
fox had turned— I pledge my word that he did not go 
5ft. beyond— turned and trailed back to where the fox 
had left his track, and just so far beyond as seemed neces- 
sary to detect that something was going on wrong, made 
a close circuit, picked up the trail and drew the cogs to- 
gether. The result of his work was a good day's sport 
and a dead fox. T. G. Elliott. 
Kellek, Va., Jan, 7. 
MAINE VS. WISCONSIN. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Hough has something to say in your issue of Jan. 9 
about Maine as compared with "our deer country of Wis- 
consin" which seems to indicate that he is laboring under 
a misapprehension regarding the big-game country Down 
East. 
We are willing to let him brag about the size of his 
town of Chicago, but when it comes to claiming that they 
have more of a wilderness in Wisconsin than we can pro- 
duce in the East we rise to expostulate. 
Compared with Maine, Wisconsin is a public park, and 
if I am not mistaken it was Mr. Hough himself who told 
us of the bicycle trips that have recently been so popular 
through the pine woods country there. As a matter of 
fact, there are no large areas in that State or in the upper 
peninsula of Michigan that are not rendered accessible 
by railroads or where you cannot go with a team of 
horses. 
The average distance from a railroad station on one line 
to a similar station on another line is perhaps thirty milcR, 
and nowhere can a place be found where a man is more 
than twenty-five miles from the means of access to the 
outer world afforded by the steam engine. This is noi 
much of a wilderness according to our ideas in this part 
of the country. They can do better than that in the 
Adirondacks. 
In Maine things are arranged on a larger scale. There 
you can go 130 miles in one direction and 150 in another 
on a course at right angles with the first without finding 
a railroad, and you won't travel by bicycle either. In 
fact this particular bit of wild land lying in Maine and 
across the border in Qaebec which is nowhere crossed by 
railroads is upward of 20,000 square miles in extent, or 
about ten times the size of any corresponding tract in 
Wisconsin or Michigan. Large portions of it are alto- 
gether inaccessible except by boat or on foot, and no- 
where has it any permanent population of consequence 
aside from the deer, caribou and moose. Imagine what 
a sensation it would create in Wisconsin if a moose should 
suddenly appear in that State! But the thing is impos- 
sible even to imagine. 
They never could get a moose in Wisconsin unless they 
took him there in a box car. Such game is only found 
where there is real wilderness and a back country. 
They have plenty of deer in Wisconsin, but what does 
that signify? According to the accounts I have read in 
Forest and Stream, there are just as many on Long 
Island within Hfty minutes' ride of New York city. Deer 
will live anywhere, even in a man's back yard, if they 
are not molested. An extended range is not necessary to 
their existence. 
No, Brother Hough, you have to go west of the Missis- 
sippi to match our Maine wilderness, and even there you 
will hardly at present find any corresponding area where 
the game is so thick, pquare mile for square mile. You 
yourself are constantly telling us of the decreasing game 
supply in the favored localities of the great West. In 
Maine big game of one kind or another is increasing 
faster than it can be killed off, and one cannot go any- 
where in the wilderness proper at any time of year and 
not see game, In the far West, on the other hand, you 
can travel over miles and miles of wilderness and moun- 
tains without seeing a living thing worth shooting a rifle 
at. The game is somewhere else or else it is dead. 
Finally, if Mr. Hough wants his moose he had better 
turn his face to the rising suu (provided he wants to kill 
him on American soil). There are still enough moose left 
in Maine to supply hunters as far west as Cflicago, and if 
your Chicago-and-the-West man comes this way next fall 
we will try to show him one. Also what a real wilder- 
ness is like, Maine. 
FLORIDA GAME AND FISH. 
Sarasota, Fla., Jan. 6. — The weather here is very warm 
and pleasant, Mr. E. Webster, of New York, left the Ho- 
tel De Soto on Saturday, 2d, at 10:30, returned QriO, 
having caught four bluefish of good size, one reddsh 
weighing 33lbs., two tarpon, largest 481bs., small one 16ibs. 
Monday, 4th, walked to jacksnipe grounds, shot thirty- 
two snipe and thirteen quail; walked both ways; left at 10 
A. M., returned at 6:30. Geo. H. Mackie. 
Pamasoffkeh, Fla., Jan. 11. — This part of Florida and 
other more southern points, with which I am well ac- 
quainted, were never more plentifully stocked with deer, 
bears and turkeys. Several parties of us in this neigh- 
borhood have been out lately and never failed to bring 
in from. one to two deer in a half -day hunt. New Year's 
Day we killed two large bucks, 1451b8. and 166lbs., 
dressed; largest deer killed in this country or Florida in 
years. Our g§B,gon ia up Marph I, We have good black 
baesflsbiog. JakeMahsh. 
MAINE AND BOSTON. 
Boston, Jan. 16 —That there is a boom in hunting mat- 
ters one need not doubt who will take the trouble to look 
into the shop of any live taxidermist. Heads of game — 
mounted heads — for relira and ornamentation are to be^ 
seen without number. It is stated, on good authority,, 
that nine out of ten of the moose killed in Maine the past; 
season were wanted for their heads only, and but very- 
few of the bodies were saved. The weight of these 
animals is great, and they are usually killed a long way" 
into the forest, with no roads, and the getting of the entire- 
body out would cost hundreds of dollars. But the head) 
can be towed out by the guides and mounted at the taxi- 
dermist's shop. If one is not lucky, or is not hunter- 
enough to secure his own moose, deer or caribou head,, 
there is plenty of opportunity for buying. One could but- 
think of such things, efpecially if he saw a load of fifty 
caribou heads and horns that passed along the streets of 
Boston the other day, piled high upon a big wagon, a, 
most peculiar li ad, with the great antlers sticking out in* 
every possible direction. Some of the antlers were very 
large and spreading, with the two prongs in front of the- 
nose very pronounced. They were the property of M. 
Abbott Frazar, and were purchased, together with the 
skins of the heads, in Newfoundland. 
The last legal moose hunting trip of the season for Bos- 
ton sportsmen is over, and no moose were taken. Dr. 
Heber Bishop, W. T. Farley and Mr. Stevens left Boston 
the night before Christmas for a moose hunt in the Moose 
River Valley. They reached Lowelltown at 3 or 4 o'clock 
in the morning, and here their troubles began, with the 
mercury down below zero. They had to spend the night 
in the station for want of better accommodations. The 
next morning they started on a tramp of many miles over 
Caribou Mountain, with the snow l^ft. deep. The guides, 
were against attempting the tramp, but the hunters were: 
bound to proceed. At nightfall not more than half the 
way had been accomplished. After several miles of 
weary plowing through the snow, ending in darkness, they 
came to an old camp deserted some time ago by Dr.. 
Bishop and his friends. On entering they found that, 
guramers had been there, and had left wood and kind- 
lings. It did not take long to start a fire, but there were' 
no facilities for sleeping beyond a couple of old wire mat- 
tresses without bedaing of any kind. They curled about 
the stove as best they could, and managed to get a little 
sleep, taking turns at watching the fire, lest they freeze. 
They had no food beyond a slight lunch found in Mr.. 
Farley's pack, for the team with their baggage was miles 
behind. The guides were for keeping on, but finally con- 
sented to worry out the night in the old camp. The next 
morning they started in good season, and reached their 
permanent camp in the valley near the Canadian bound- 
ary early in the afternoon. 
After a rest, with plenty of food to eat, and a night 
when it was possible to keep from freezing, the second, 
day dawned with plenty of fresh snow for tracking. 
That day Mr. Farley started an enormous moose, and it. 
stopped in easy range. The rifle came up instinctively, 
but none too soon the hunter saw it had no horns — an 
enormous cow, that Mr. Farley would not shoot. The 
guide, a hunter of many years' experience, pronounced it 
the largest cow moose he had ever seen. Two or three 
other cow moose were started, but no bulls. In one case, 
a calf was with the cow, but was not shot. When the 
hunters found that they were to get no moose they gave 
their attention to getting a couple of deer each. This they 
say was easy, the deer being very plenty. But curiously 
enough the bucks had already begun shedding their ant- 
lers, two having been shot with both horns gone. Dr. 
Bishop found a horn, freshly shed, in the snow. It has 
generally been supposed that the Maine deer held their 
horns till the end of January at least, and even into Feb- 
ruary. The hunters came out at the end of the open sea- 
son, and were on the way home Jan. 1. 
Pickerel fishing is good on many of the celebrated 
Maine pickerel lakes and ponds. Winthrop Ponds are 
being well fished, but with fewer pickerel than usual. 
Norway Lake is heard from in the way of big strings of 
pickerel. Lewiston and Auburn fishermen are bringing 
many pickerel to the markets of those cities. Boston mar- 
ket receivers say that they can have all the pickerel they 
will take, but prices are low and they do not encourage 
the sending of tnem in. 
The tomcod fishermen are in evidence along the Massa- 
chusetts shore. The wooden tongs with braided ends 
are in order, and the poor tomcod surrenders because he 
is obliged to. At Ipswich River a good many are being 
taken. Parker R' ver is being tonged for tomcod as usual . 
Tarbox and the Baileys have been out once or twice from 
B^ field, and each time have taken about a bushel from 
the Parker River. They fished just below the woollen 
mill. Along the banks of the stream the operatives live, 
but probably never think of fishing. One day they saw 
the boys taking up the tomcod with their wooden tongs, 
and soon a pretty little girl came out of one of the houses. 
She says: 
"My mamma wants to know if you will sell her some 
fish?" 
The fishermen told her that they had no fish to sell, but 
they would give her some. She ran into the house, and 
soon emerged with a big pa,n in both hands: 
"My mamma wants three dozen," she piped. 
The boys gave her six good-sized fish, feeling that 
they had other friends whom they would like to make 
happy. 
FiSh and Game Commissioner Carlton's bill to license 
guides has been introduced into the Maine Legislature, 
say the dispatches to the daily papers. It provides that 
every guide shall take out a license, the annual cost of 
which shall be $3. The penalty is not less than $25 for 
the failure to take out such license by any person pre- 
tending to guide or accompany hunting and fishing par- 
ties. The guide 80 licensed shall wear a badge and shall 
also act as fire warden and keep a record of all fires. Any 
guide breaking the game laws shall be punished by a fine 
of not less than $50 and shall not engage in guiding for a 
term of one year. Ba: the most peculiar feature of the 
bill is that he shall keep a record of all persons he guides, 
their nam^s and residences, the amount and nature of 
the fish and game taken, and immediately forward the 
same to the Commissioners. 
Well, has the sportsman anything to say about aU this? 
Who can compel him to employ a guide? Has a citizen 
of the United States a constitutional right to work for 
whom he pleasea at any Iggal calling? SpkciaLi 
