326 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 23, 1897. 
REMINISCENCES OF AN OLD SPORTS- 
MAN.— II. 
(Continued from page 307.) 
One of my companions was presented with a rifle, long 
and unwieldly, but, as he said, an awful one to shoot. He 
was very proud of it and came over to show it to me, and 
proposed going out the next day, promising that he would 
not kill any game without my permission. The next 
morning he was on hand bright and early, and with Milo 
we started for the woods after sqturrels or anything else 
that might show up. My companion was in the best of 
spirits, and boasted of the feats that he would perform in 
the way of knocking eyes out of squirrels, taking heads ofl' 
of grouse, etc., until he had worked himself up to quite a 
state. The first game we flushed was a bluejay, and as she 
alighted on a limb some 50yds. away and presented a fair 
mark, I advised him to give her a try. Resting the rifle 
across a limb he took a long and deliberate aim and let 
go. The bird darted away uttering discordant squalls. 
When Joe turned to me with wide-open eyes exclaiming: 
"That beats all, did you hear that bird swear at TJncle 
Gale for giving me that gun?" "Yes, she certainly said 
Caleb, and her remarks sounded very much like swearing. 
You must have come ver}^ near her." "Yes; if she had not 
dodged just as I pulled I should have taken her head 
clean off"." I did not gainsay this, as I was afraid that it 
might hurt his feelings if I told him that I had seen a 
twig fall at least 3ft. above the bird, and heard the thud of 
- the ball as it struck a large tree some 4 or 5ft. to the left of 
the line. As this tree was in the direction in which we 
were going, I stopped near it to look for the mark of thfe 
ball, when greatly to our surprise we found a gray squirrel 
at its foot with a bullet hole squarely through the middle 
of its body and with the blood still trickling from the 
wound, so' that there could be no question as to the man- 
ner of its death. Picking it up, I accused him of deliber- 
ately trying to deceive me by telling me that he was shoot- 
ing at the jay when all the time he was drawing a bead 
on the squirrel, and then I soundly berated him for spoil- 
ing so much meat by shooting it through the loin, instead 
of knocking out the eye he had talked so much about. I 
said so much and in so serious a manner that he more 
than half believed that I was right, and when we got 
home he was completely converted, for he drew a bead on 
the squirrel at ten rods and killed him first fire and 
would have shot him through the head, but in the excite- 
ment he forgot to allow for the drop of the ball. 
One day my companion shot a squirrel that lodged in 
the fork of the tree, nearly 50ft. from the ground. Although 
the tree was a very hard one to climb, he somehow shinned 
up it, and reaching the squirrel, was upon the _ point_ of 
dropping it to the ground when an inspiration seized him, 
and he took out his knife, and cutting ofl: the tail, whittled 
a peg from a twig and pinned the tail fast in the fork, leav- 
ing 3 or iin. of it in sight, and so natural did it look that 
I bade him hurry down for fear that I should give it a 
shot, and he might get hit. When we were some two 
miles from the place and nearly home, my companion dis- 
covered that he had lost his knife, and he remembered that 
he had stuck it in the tree when fixing that tail, and bad 
forgotten to remove it when he came down, so we decided 
to go that way in a day or two and secure it, but it was 
nearly a week before we went. 
When we arrived at the tree we noticed that the tail 
looked a Uttle the worse for wear, and that there were 
quite a number of spots near it where the bark had been 
knocked ofi", which showed us that the joke had been a 
success. My companion went up the tree for his knife, 
but he did' not find it, neither could we find it on the 
ground, so we came to the conclusion that some one in 
shooting at the tail had knocked the knife down and car- 
ried it ofi'. But this was not the case, as I learned several 
weeks later. 
It appeared that two hunters were in the vicinity when 
their dog ran a squirrel up this tree, and as they came up 
on the opposite side they did not see the tail, but one of 
them saw the squirrel and blazed away at it, knocking it 
oflf the limb; but, unseen by them, it caught on again, and 
slowly crawled almost to the top of the tree. In look- 
ing for him they discovered the tail, and thinking it to be 
their game lodged in the fork they gave it several shots; 
but as they could not dislodge it, one of them climbed ud 
after it, and when he got there he found the knife, which 
lie kept, and he also saw through the joke. But the worst 
of it was that this had happened just before we came upon 
the scene, and they had gone only a short distance when 
they saw us approactiing the tree. They dodged behind a 
clump of brush to see us shoot at that tail; but when these 
heartless wretches saw what we were up to, instead of 
coming out and giving up the knife, they just lay there 
and watched the performance, and stufied their handker- 
chiefs into their mouths so that we should not hear their 
■ill-timed laughter. We never knew who they were, nor 
did anyone know who lost the knife; but we heard the 
tale and laughed at it with the rest, and the whole crowd, 
including ourselves, agreed that it was a first-class joke. 
Once when hunting in this vicinity Milo called us to a 
tree, and as I saw the squirrel I pointed it out to my com- 
panion and bade him shoot it. Resting his gun against a 
tree, he took a good long aim and fired; but his nerves were 
not just right, as this was his first squirrel, and, as I ex- 
pected, he missed him. But there was another one some 
20ft. beyond this one, and the report of the gun, or per- 
haps the shot rattling around him, startled him, and he 
made a jump for another limb, and missing it, came tum- 
bling down; but he never reached the ground, as Milo 
made a practice of catching everj'^ one that was shot over 
him, and this one shared the fate of many a brother that 
had gone before. I tried mj' best to convince my com- 
panion that he had killed his squirrel, but he grinned and 
shook his head. Then with a furtive glance into the tree, 
where he could see the one he had shot at still curled up 
in the fork of the limb, he continued to load his gun, 
and when all was ready tried again, and succeeded in 
bringing it down. "There," said he, "I've got him; but I 
made a bad miss the first time, and you can't load a fool 
squirrel that commits suicide on to me, for I know 
that I didn't touch him." I have always honored 
my companion for his behavior on this occasion, and I 
never see any one claim a shot that does not belong to 
" him without thinking that he would feel much better, as 
well as retain the respect of his companions, would he but 
emulate the behavior of my friend! 
I may m well take this opportunity to tel! of a squirxe] 
scrape that bothered me not a little at the time, and has 
always sat heavy on my conscience. I had quite a repu- 
tation as a squirrel hunter, and Milo and I had fre- 
quent invitations to go out after them with someone who 
loved the sport. One evening a stranger from the city 
came to my house and asked me to go with him the next 
day, and I promised to do so. The next morning we were 
in the woods before sunrise and had gone but a short dis- 
tance when I saw a squirrel running on a limb. I blazed 
away at him and killed him, and was greatly surprised to 
see my companion throw up his gun and shoot after the 
squirrel had fallen at least 4ft., and was still more sur- 
prised to hear him claim the shot; but this was not all. 
Looking me squarely in the face with a patronizing smile, 
he said that, as I was a boy, of course I would naturally 
feel that I had also hit the squirrel, and in order that I 
should be perfectly satisfied we would flip a cent to see 
who should have it. This was entirely new to me. I had 
never witnessed quite so barefaced a transaction as the, 
shooting and subsequent claim, and was at first dumh- 
founded; but by the time that he had finished his very 
fair proposition, astonishment had given way to amuse- 
ment and I began to enjoy the situation, and readily 
agreed to the proposed arbitration. 
The dispute as to who should have the game was also 
entirelj' new to me, asi heretofore the only quarrels on this 
score that I had ever had were when I tried to make my 
companion take more than he thought was his proper 
share; in fact, squirrels were a drug w'th me — that is to 
say, dead ones were, and I could not comprehend why a 
man should demean himself in such a manner when he 
could have had for the asking the entire proceeds of the 
day's hunt, or he could have gone to the market and 
bought all the stock on hand for fi^ve cents a piece. These 
thoughts fiashed through my mind, and then an inspira- 
tion seized me. I had for some time been possessed of one 
of the old-faphioned cents then in use that had a head on 
both sides. This I had occasionally used to beat the boys, 
but I am now pleased to know I never had recourse to 
this unless I thought the conduct of my antagonist justified 
the use of the double-header. As this was most emphati- 
cally a flagrant case of this nature, when he took a cent 
from his pocket I was ready for him, and as was the 
usual method in such cases, each flipped his cent in the 
air with heads to win. Of course I won, and I could 
plainly see he did not like it for a cent, but I put the game 
in my pocket, and we moved on. 
Meantime I had been thinking it over, and I began to 
get mad, and just as Milo opened on one that he had treed 
an inspiration seized me. Now when this happens I am 
powerless except to obey the promptings of the inspira- 
tion, so you see that I am entirely blameless, let what will 
happen. Well, the genii that had me in their toils bade 
me pay this man off in his own coin, and as I had of my 
own free will wrung in a cold cent on him, I thought that 
if such things were sinful perhaps the whole business 
would go on record as only one item, and the chances 
were that the aforesaid genii would catch it instead of me, 
so I gave in without further struggle. 
When we came to the tree where Milo was barking, in- 
stead of looking for the squirrel, I kept my eye on my 
companion, and when he raised his gun I brought mine 
into position, pointing it as nearly as I could guess in the 
same direction and blazed away as soon as he did, and 
then I claimed the shot. I could see that he was both sur- 
prised and disgusted, but the spell I was under rendered 
me callous to this. He again proposed an appeal to the 
Goddess of Liberty to arbitrate between us, and she was 
soon spinning in the air, and, it is perhaps needless to say, 
coming down right side up for me every time. 
This performance was repeated, with slight variations, 
until I had five tails hanging out of my pockets, while he 
had not the ghost of a hair to show. He then said that 
he disliked hunting with a dog, and that he would try 
still-hunting; then he turned and soon disappeared, and I 
have never seen him since. Soon after he left me the 
"power" departed from me and I was in my normal condi- 
tion, and found myself deeply regretting the whole busi- 
ness. Not that I was sorry for him or gave a thought to 
his feelings; his punishment was all right, but I grieved 
and still regret that his conduct should have inspired the 
aforesaid genii to force me to do such unsportsmanlike 
deeds. 
There was one squirrel that knew more than I did, at 
least he always came out ahead when we met, and after 
this had happened several times I began to get interested, 
and resolved that I would have that taU if he ever showed 
up again. He lived at the corner of some heavy timber 
where there were hollow trees, one of which he would 
make before I could draw a bead on him. 
I had for a companion one day a young fellow fully my 
equal in nearly all that pertains to the science of squirrel 
hunting, and on a few points he was ahead of me; but as 
squirrels were plentiful and we had quite a diversified ex- 
perience, I flattered myself when our day was 
ended that I knew as much about the art as 
he did. There was one wrinkle that he showed me 
that I took to at once. Milo barked at a but- 
ternut tree, and just as we came up we saw a tail disap- 
pear in a hole in the tree some loft, from the ground. My 
companion said never a word, but leaning his gun against 
a tree took out his knife and, cutting a sapling the proper 
length, took from his pocket about a foot of fuse, such as is 
used when blasting rock, and tied it fast to the tip, then 
touching a match to it he stuck it in the hole, telling me to 
''give it to him" when he caine out. Sure enough, in about 
five seconds he came out with a rush, and as he was get- 
ting away from there as fast he could scramble I "gave it to 
him" and brought him down. Of course, I did not let my 
companion know that this was my first experience with 
this method of operation, but at the same time I was 
deeply interested, and at once saw that my big corkscrew 
that was used to draw the game from the hollow trees 
could now take a rest, for here was something that would 
do the job much better, and I determined to test the new 
device upon the veteran previously mentioned, that had 
escaped me so many times by taking refuge where I could 
not reach him with the corkscrew. 
The nest morning I invested in a couple yards of fuse, 
and started out to interview the veteran in his home at the 
corner of the wood lot. Milo was soon calling to me, and 
as I hastened to him, I caught a glimpse of the old fellow 
as he whipped into a hole in the tree some 30ft. from the 
ground. Now, I bad decided to take this squirrel alive, 
and carry feira ^om to owupy a cage tbat bad l?eea va. 
cant for some time; and for the purpose of capture and 
transportation, I had made and brought with me a stout 
bag about 2ft. l<^ng b}'' 1ft. in width, with a puckering string 
at the open end to make all secure when I had bagged my 
game. I took this and the fuse and shinned up the tree 
until I came to the hole, when I cut off a piece of fuse, and 
lighting it, dropped it into the hole, for I had been there 
before, and knew that the hole went down instead of up; 
then, placing the open end of the bag over the hole, as 
calmly as I could I awaited events. I had not long to 
wait. There was soon a scratching down in the hollow, 
which rapidly came my way, then a struggle in the 
bag, a quick drawing of the strings and my captive 
was safe, and I put him in my pocket and began to de- 
scend the tree; but I had not gone 4ft. before there 
was more scratching and scrambling in the hole, and 
as I glanced up I saw the big old fellow that I thought 
was so safe in my pocket come out of that hole 
with a rush, and almost flying up to the top, he took a 
desperate leap for another tree and ran along the limb, 
and disappeared in the hole that was just above where the 
limb joined the tree. This was discouraging, and as I 
descended to the ground I felt anything but pleased at the 
result; but I soon braced up and resolved that I would 
have him, regardless of time, trouble or fuse; so I started 
for the tree with renewed hopes and courage, and was 
soon astride the limb just under the hole. As this one 
ran up instead of down, I had brought with me a long 
slender twig to which I tied a piece of fuse, and setting 
fire to it I ran it up as far as I could, then placing the bag 
in position I again calmly awaited events and listened for 
the scratching and scrambling of my victim. But not a 
sound did I hear except the sputtering and hissing of the 
fuse. I was getting impatient, when suddenly the bag was 
twitched from my grasp with a jerk and went sailing to 
the ground with the prospective tenant of my empty cage 
enveloped in its folds. No sooner did they strike the 
ground than the old fellow cleared himself from the bag, 
and springing up a nearby tree with a derisive wave of 
his tail he disappeared around the trunk, and I never saw 
him again; for he shook the dust of his long-time home 
from his feet and took his departure for more congenial 
quarters. Let us draw the curtain here, as I had nothing 
to say that would interest or edify the reader. 
Shadow. 
[to be continued.] 
NOTES FROM NEW BRUNSWICK. 
Nearly all the American sportsmen who have been seek- 
ing the moose and caribou in New Brunswick this fall, and of 
whom any information has been received, have been very 
fuocessful. 
E F. Coburn and Dr. George B. Elliott, of Lawrence, 
Mass., who have been hunting on the upper waters of Little 
River, with W. H. Allen and Ed. Church, of Shirley. Maine, 
as guides, brought out two fine moose last week. One head, 
measured 52in., the other 46. Mr. Allen has concluded to 
hunt altogether in New Brunswick henceforth. He is cer- 
tainly a very reliable, energetic guide, whom I can recom- 
mend without reserve. 
Mr. Allen seems also to be endowed with more than the 
ordinary amount of that mysterious quality known as luck. 
While on his way back to Little River last Mondayj for 
the purpose of bringing out some moose meat which had been 
left behind, he came upon a large bull moose at Rideout Lake, 
only four miles from Mount Hope settlement. Mr. Allen 
succeeded in bringing down the moose and taking the entire 
carcass to St. John. The head of this moose measured 50in, 
Messrs. W. F. Fowle and Gordon Parker, of Bofton, who 
have been hunting in the region of the Crooked Deadwater 
with the veteran guide, Henry Braithwaite, emerged from 
the primeval last Wednesday. They shot three moose, one 
of them having a 55in. spread of antlers. Bronson Rumsey 
and George Blestein, of Buffalo, met Henry at Boiestown on 
the bth, and have gone into the wilds for a trip of five 
weeks. The well-known hunter and trapper Jim Logan, is 
also with the party. 
Mr. George F. Durgin, of Concord, N. H., haa excellent 
luck on the Nepisiguit. He shot a moose, a bear and three 
caribou, besides missing a very large moose which came up 
in the darkness. Mr. Durgin says that there is no doubt 
about the Provinces being the coming place for good sport. 
The heads are being mounted by Mr. Crosby, of Bangor. 
All the American hunters who have tried the Restigouche 
this fall speak very highly of the country. I have not 
received any details, further than that, JVLr. G. A. Worth got 
a fine caribou, Mr. Rosengarten a moose, and General Hill two 
of the largest moose heads ever taken in that region. Most, 
if not all, of these heads were also shipped to Bangor. 
IVIr. Crosby writes me as follows : ' '1 hear from the Tobique 
that a head spreading 69iD. has been killed, and that it is 
coming to us. I believe the owners are Messrs. Bryant & 
Decatur, of Boston. WiU give you exact measurements 
when I see the head. I am glad to say that at last every, 
thing in the shipping line has been fixed 0. K., and we are 
receiving heads from the Provinces on every express. Many 
of my friends are having the best sport of their lives there. 
As 1 recommended them to New Brunswick, I am much 
pleased to have them so successful. If New Brunswick 
continues her policy, she will enrich herself many thousands 
of dollars annually from American sportsmen. I think your 
laws are framed about right." 
Alonzo Davis, of McAdam Junction, invested in a new 
Winchester the other day. On the following day he sur- 
prised two bears in a beech tree and bagged them both. 
While on a three days' partridge hunt at Baai- Brook last 
week, your correspondent, finding signs of moose quite nu- 
merous, "called" one evening at Burpee Lake, with the result 
of bringing up a very large moose, but though the animal 
remained for nearly an hour grunting and prowUng around 
us within easy shooting range, he refused to be coaxed out of 
the alder tiiicket in which he was concealed, and is still 
roaming the forest wUds. Such is life. 
A letter has been received from Mr. John Bodkin, of 
Fredericioa, who is hunting on the Nepisiguit, stating that 
on the afternoon of the 8th he shot a monster moose with a 
spread of horn5 of 66in. If this measurement is correct (and 
Mr. Bodkin is a gentleman whose statements can be fully 
relied upon), the record heretofore existing for Maine, New 
Brunswick and Nova Scotia has been surpassed lj at least 
Sin. Mr. B->dkin has the additional satisfaction of having 
called up this moose himself. Mr B uses for moose hunt- 
ing a double-barreled "composite" gun, such as are now 
made by several of the leading English mpnufaclurers. Itia 
^ ghoi^ua to ftU iijteBte acd purposte, bat is rifled at the 
