40^ 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. to, 
Proprietors "of fishing and hunting" "resorts will find ff profitable 
to advertise them in Forest and Stream. , • 
The "Briefs" Pictures. 
The illustrations in the current edition of Game Laws in Brief, 
Mr. Charles Hallock says, well represent America's wilderness 
sports. The Brief gives all the laws of the United 1 States and 
Canada for the practical guidance of anglers and shooters. As 
an authority, it has a long record of unassailed and unassailable 
accuracy. Forest and Stream Pub. Co. sends it postpaid for 25 
cents, or your dealer will supply you. 
Deer Hunting in the Alleghanies. 
It is to be hoped that the average reader does not 
care for tales merely giving statistics of great slaughter 
and will permit me to recount some of the incidents of 
an expedition after deer without requiring me to make 
his senses swim in blood by details of the death of 
enough noble animals to load a freight car. I was 
educated to a large extent on Sir Gordon Cummings 
and Sir Samuel Baker, and the main objects of each of 
those estimable gentlemen seemed to be to creep upon 
game with gunbearers bringing along an arsenal, and 
then shoot and shoot until he reached for more guns and 
found that the rest of his bearers, being cowardly, had 
taken refuge in a tree, and consequently failed to kill 
enough to quite feed the heathen principality in which 
the hunter found himself. Therefore, if the reader will 
excuse us for not killing more deer, he may get some 
idea of the conditions of the sport of. deer hunting in 
the Alleghanies by allowing me to give an account of a 
recent trial. 
In the State of West Virginia a provident and thought- 
ful Legislature tried to insure sport for a future genera- 
tion by closing the season for killing deer for five years 
and thus causing the average mountaineer to come to a 
state of mental revolution, to the extent that while the 
majority sullenly obey the law, a grand jury of sixteen 
citizens" refuse to find indictments for violations of the 
game law. for fear of opportunity, which might make 
felons of them all in the twinkling of an eye. The law 
apparently lacks sanction, and I do not believe that any 
good can come in cutting off .all sport from sports- 
men, who alone insure fair play for deer. On account 
of this law we were compelled to cross the line into 
Virginia, to go away from Newcastle for coals, and we 
settled on the adjoining county of Bath, near the famous 
Hot Springs, where the millionaires and their satellites 
most do congregate. Think of going within the sound 
of the locomotive to hunt — we who know of many a 
perfect wilderness. It could not be helped, and we relied 
upon having a good time camping, with the remote pos- 
sibility of getting a deer. 
We proposed to chase with hounds, and as it seems 
to be necessary for the deer chaser to defend his position 
as against those who lie in wait and murder in cold 
Wood, as a preface, I wish to file a plea of justification. 
First, the market-hunter is invariably a still-hunter. 
Second, the chase affords sport for a whole party, and 
the deer has the finest show of escaping he could ask, 
while the expert and idle tug or sangdigger spends 
month after month locating deer that he may shoot 
them down like sheep. Third, only a small portion of 
the forest lies in the right shape to be hunted with 
hounds, leaving vast regions where deer can breed in 
the quiet necessary for their rapid increase. Lastly, U 
is the only way in which men who have work to do, and 
are consequently the bone and sinew of the land, can 
ever hope to kill a deer. 
There never was a time' when a novice could approach 
a deer in the woods on a still-hunt, and if they legislate 
from now till doomsday they will never be able to go 
into the woods and shoot deer as they fondly imagine. 
We had to raise a pack of hounds, and it having been 
against the laws in this State to chase for ten years, we 
had less difficulty in finding four deer hounds than you 
might imagine. Three of them showed a sttspicious 
amount of business sense. The first we got from a 
man who was under obligations to us, and his twelve- 
year-old boy looked so pitiful when he saw his dog 
was to brave the dangers of poison and getting lost in 
a strange country that it was hard to take him. I am 
glad to state that the boy's bosom companion has been 
restored to him sound and well. This was Jack. 
Old Lias Harmon, who once camped two nights on 
the trail of a deer, and carried it twenty miles home, gave 
us another, and he died before we started. May he rest in 
peace. He was a most destructive hunter. This parting 
gift we called Harmon until it was lengthened to Har- 
mony by a man with some latent poetry in him. Har- 
mony would run all right, but had a tramp streak in him 
that caused him to put up at the first house he came 
to, and as at this season of the year hounds are worth 
their weight in silver in Bath, he is still there. 
The third acquisition was Rebecca. She put on too 
many airs, and was not only no good herself, but she 
evidently tried to make Jack, Harmony and Driver be- 
lieve that chasing Was very unhoundlike behavior. 
Driver was the apple of the eye of the guide. How 
such a dog could kno'w so much about chasing, and come 
from West Virginia, will remain one of the preat mys- 
teries to those who believe that laws, to be observed, 
must simply be enacted. Driver was the starter. Al- 
most any old dog will run a deer when his blood is 
up, but Driver would work until the deer was jumped. 
And such a voice! • It was a mellow roar to be heard a 
mile. 
To render this account more intelligible, the personnel 
of the party must be noticed. The roster: the Captain of 
gang, a lawyer from the city of Charleston ; the Judge; 
the Doctor; the Prosecuting Attorney, familiarly called 
the "Persecutor": the Hermit, a stock-raiser; the old 
Colonel, and a sable functionary, the cook, Old Joe, who 
has gone with us dozens of trips and who' is almost in- 
dispensable. 
We got together our tents, blankets, food and neces- 
saries, and sent them on in a road wagon in charge of 
the Colonel and Joe. We followed, and after a drive 
of thirty miles reached our camping place on the banks 
of' Jackson's River, here about 30yds. .wide. This stream 
is the head of the James River. We- had obtained per- 
mission to hunt upon the 3,000 acres comprising the 
Warwick estate, and as we passed the fine old mansion 
we called to pay our respects to the lady of the manor 
and her charming daughter, who alone remain to occupy 
that spacious country seat, which was once the center of 
life and gayety. We had come up with the heavy freight 
and from thence we trailed up to the head of the place 
and found a suitable camping place at the mouth of 
Muddy Run, where wood and water were convenient. 
Then the Judge and Doctor arrived, and we pitched the 
big tent and got comfortable. We had breakfast before 
day, and waited for the guide, who was to start the dogs. 
He evidently had sized us up as an inexperienced, lux- 
urious set, and we had to wait near an hour on him. 
He was on hand after that. As a matter of fact, we could 
see it sticking out of all the natives that we were 
imposters, when in reality we had all of us killed deer 
and had had long experience in hunting them. Even old 
black Joe, on one notable occasion, had thrown down a 
loaded gun and gone into the flood and drowned a deer 
that was struggling with the hounds. 
The first morning we were deployed up and down 
Jackson's River. The stream at this point is a set of 
long, smooth rapids, slipping away at rate unknown in 
other mountain streams of its size. The driver disap- 
peared in the woods with the hounds. I got to my 
stand, which was like the rest at a place when! the rush 
of the waters conjured all manner of sounds. A dozen 
times I heard the deer plunge into the water or the cry 
of the hounds on the trail. After about five hours of 
anxious 'waiting, we all trailed into camp again. No 
deer. The dogs had started a big one and driven it into 
the river two miles above the first stander. That was the 
history of most of the chasing. The deer would run 
wild. We would go- to "our posts, fall into a pleasant 
train of thought, chew the bitter cud of reflection, or 
else read a book With our eyes off the page half the 
time. Reading on the deer stand is permissible in our 
gang, but is not encouraged. One of our friends who 
opposed such reading had the strong side of the argu- 
ment until one day, when it turned out that he was 
asleep at the critical moment. 
On the whole Jackson's River is too much in the world 
for good deer hunting. Cows come and look over your 
shoulder and shake their bells and make you uneasy. 
We built fires to warm on the cold mornings, sup- 
ported by the Judge's theory that we needed the smoke 
as a deodorizer. He said there was a suspicion of 
scented soap about some of us that would disgust a deer. 
About the middle of the week we put a five-pointed buck 
into the river at the poor farm, and it was killed by a 
man who was husking corn. Under the custom of the 
country we were entitled to all of this deer except a 
ham to the man who killed it, but we did not knpw of 
the killing until the next day, by which time it had 
been marketed at the Hot Springs. All the week our 
bad luck in general continued the same — never failing 
to start and the deer running wide. We held a trial oyer 
our guide when it was' suggested that he was doing 
us, and pronounced him honest. The more experienced 
had had such luck a number of times. But with it all 
we had meat in pot, and the way it came to pass was a 
little peculiar. 
In the afternoon of the first day the party scattered to 
hunt small game for a few hours, tramping through the 
fields for partridges, or scanning fallen logs in the woods 
for grouse. The Doctor had a peculiar ambition, how- 
ever, and that was to kill a wildcat (bay lynx). Why, no 
one knew, for of all underhanded, sneaking, spiteful, 
cowardly animals when alive, and carrion when dead, 
the wildcat heads the list. He is about as noble an ani- 
mal as a mangy dog. But the guide promised the Doc- 
tor to show him a den where there was the hair of a 
wildcat on the rocks, and did so;, but the Doctor pro- 
nounced it coon hair and was still disconsolate. They 
then hunted the woods, having separated. In a few min- 
utes the guide saw a buck fawn and shot it through 
the skin right over the saddle, and his dog, a shepherd, 
caught it in a few jumps. It was as large as many a 
yearling deer, and it was eaten down to the last morsel. 
On the second day we had made things comfortable 
in camp. I do not believe that one ever ceases to learn 
how to camp. I have often thought if our volunteers 
had had some experience as campers they would have 
known how to have remained contented and well in 
camp, and the most distressing part of the war would 
have been averted. We lived in a big wall tent with a good 
wood stove in the corner. A table and two benches were 
made. The beds were filled with straw, and we had 
nice clean blankets to wrap up in. At night, when one 
would wake and breath the air of that high-pitched 
tent, he felt that he was taking in life and health with 
every breath. You - may open your windows at home, but 
such air does not come over the yard fence as seems 
to circulate through the tent in the night time. One 
night was most wonderfully windy, and the tent creaked 
as. if it could not possibly stand the gusts, but the 
majority of us got reckless, built a big fire in the 
stove and surrendered ourselves to the comfort of lying 
warm and drowsy, and letting the wind do its worst. 
Not so the Judge. He feared that the tent would blow 
down and catch fire, though he did not show his fear. 
After everybody was asleep, the Judge thought of his 
$275 shotgun, and stealthily packed it in its case. Then 
he slept the sleep of the just with it at hand, Morning 
came and nobody was afraid then, but the guide could 
not find his gun. He was terribly distressed about it, and 
it was finally discovered packed in the Judge's case, and 
so the exposure came, how the Judge was scared and 
packed up the ordinary, every-day shotgun of the guide 
for his own noted gun. 
■ A week passed in this manner, and those of the party 
who live in the city took the train one Sunday night from 
home, and the "Persecutor", said, that we would test it to 
See if there was a hoodoo among that part of the 
gang by having one more day's hunt. There were but 
three left to cover the river where seven had left gaps. 
The Judge had said we needed a whole regiment. But 
Monday morning dawned soft 'and cloudy, and we sent 
the three hounds to the woods, and the "Persecutor" 
went to the Fish Trap to look after the interests down 
stream, and the Colonel and I took our horses and went 
up stream to. two . stands the deer had been going 
through. In an hour or so word came by a man passing- 
down that a big buck had been run in above the poor 
farm, and five or six shots had been heard, and the 
guide wanted me to come up the river artd back up our 
fawful claim to the body as our deer. The Colonel had 
already gone on, and we were all shifted to the uttermost 
ends of the hunting territory, when we found that the 
dogs had been putting in a five-pointed buck in the 
river at different points, and that the buck and hounds 
had a hurry call, and were taking a general direction 
down stream. I rode to hounds that day. My first 
place was The Pyies, and the buck. and dogs came within 
50yds. of the river there when he winded me and kept 
down stream. Then came a wild race with the hounds in 
full cry in hearing down a narrow valley for three miles, 
over rocks and through brush and plunging through the 
fords in water girth deep. I had a good lead on the 
Colonel most of the way. My saddle girth had been 
broken the day before, and was tied with a shoe string, 
and I was carrying a heavy Winchester. It was desper- 
ate work. I lost my lead by hearing a house dog be- 
lling me, and turning back for a couple of hundred 
yards. Then the Colonel got by on a skinny bay colt, 
and he got to the "Persecutor's" stand just as the deer 
came through, and jumped into a, cornfield. 
He took three hasty shots, and the deer went out of 
sight in Cobbler Mountain, and the hounds raved by and 
we swept on for a couple of miles'- more to still lower 
stands. 
Now the deer had run within twenty steps of the 
place where the "Persecutor" was standing, and we 
afterwards got his explanation why he should not be 
fined for his failure to shoot the deer. He is probably 
the most experienced deer hunter of the lot, and the 
coolest shot, but that morning he was the victim of 
a strange occurrence. Driver and Jack came down to 
the water, and by all precedent this could mean only one 
thing— that the deer had silently entered the water and 
stolen away. He went down a hundred yards and tried 
to call the hounds across to lay them on the trail, far 
if was a now or never time in our hunt. The hounds 
were unsatisfied, and went back in the mountain and 
brought in the deer right by where he ought to have 
been. Then it was the Colonel shot at distances from 
200 to 300yds. What had happened was that the deer 
had been turned by a lot of hogs just as it was going 
in the river, and the hounds, as many highly-trained 
dogs will do, dashed into the stand regardless of the 
trail. 
The deer, passing on to the next runway, met a 
boy hauling wood, and turned and came back and 
through the stand it had first attempted. The rest is 
soon told. The deer circled for ten minutes and came 
back into the field and dropped dead in a pond of 
water, with the three hounds at its heels making the 
woods ring. One of the Colonel's shots had raked it 
aft and fore. The Colonel and I were called in by two 
shots, and there lay a big, fat doe on the ground. 
"There," said the "Persecutor," "you all have run all 
the horns off your buck." 
We held an inquest, and it was decided that we had 
been chasing a big buck, and that he had run across b 
doe, and the hounds taking the new trail had put in 
the doe. This was abundantly proven by the fact that 
the dead deer showed no signs whatever of being hard 
run. We had liver for dinner, and the "Persecutor" 
went hunting and killed a wild turkey, and could not 
find the carcass. It was a bad day for him. 
The next morning the tents were struck, and westward 
we took our way. Andrew Price. 
Marlinton, W. Va. 
Ducks on Ottawa Marshes* 
Cleveland, O., Nov. 4— Editor Forest and Stream: 
A week ago last Tuesday the weather reports read: 
"Heavy snowstorms on Lake Superior," and predicted 
heavy gales on Lake Erie. I thought that this would 
mean a good duck shoot on the Ottawa marshes, so 
on Wednesday morning I took the 10:40 A. M. train 1 
for Fremont, O. Before leaving, I called up several of 
the members by telephone to see if I couldn't get some 
one to go up with me, but business was too pressing for 1 
most of them. When I called up two of the members' 
offices, the answer came back, "Gone to the marsh 
Monday morning,'' so I knew that there would be com- 
pany when I arrived at the club house. As soon as I 
arrived at Fremont, I was told that word had come down 
from the marshes that the ducks were coming in in large 
numbers. It is about a ten-mile drive from Fremont to 
the club house, and I arrived there at 4 P- M. As tlte, 
law in this State prevents shooting on Sunday and Mon- 
day of each week, this makes Tuesday an exceptionally- 
good day. and generally each alternate day during the 
week is a good day. On arriving at the club house, 1 1 
found six members there, some who had been there for a J 
week or ten days, and others who had come up on 
Monday. They reported to me that they had had fine 
shooting on Tuesday, the party getting 135 ducks. 
Wednesday the shooting was poor, only about thirty 
five ducks being brought in. On Wednesday evening 
after dinner we brought up the question as to what time 
we would have breakfast the next morning; four of the 
party decided, as they were not feeling extra well, they 
would not get up early; so Mr. Laughlin, Charlie Seo- 
field and myself decided that we would have our break- 
fast at 5 o'clock. So in the morning we were up bright 
and early, but being delayed by several little things we! 
got away late, and it was almost 6 o'clock before we left 
the club house. The water had been so low the night 
before that the naphtha launch had to be anchored out 
in the river, as they could not get it into the boat house; 
so we went' out to the naphtha launch in our duck boats, 
and after fastening them on behind the launch we all 
got into it and started down the Sandusky River for the 1 
mouth of South Creek; where 'we' left the launch to go' 
into the marshes. Our run down took us about half 
to three-quarters of an hour, for the distance was aboui 
four miles. Going in through South Creek to Peach 
