50 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 21, 1899. 
greatest vehemence by those who for one reason or an- 
other were interested in keeping it off the statute book. 
The Commissioners were of the opinion that this law 
would operate favorably for the better protection of fiish 
and game, and from facts gleaned from the annual re- 
port of registered guides, which could be procured in no 
other way. much valuable information could be placed be- 
fore the people. We believe that this law has proved, and 
will continue to prove, of great benefit to the State. 
Since its enactment 1,763 different men and three women 
have been granted certificates of registration, in accord- 
ance with its requirements, 1,443 in the year 1898 and 
1,316 in the year 1897. 
From the nature of their occupation during at least a 
portion of the year, it will be readily seen that they are 
all directly interested in fish and game protection, and so 
situated as to be able to help greatly the Commissioners 
in this important work, if so disposed, while if disposed 
otherwise they can do great mischief. 
We think that every person authorized by the State 
to act as a guide for others, to take the State's property, 
its fish and game, should be compelled to observe care- 
fully all the laws and render the Commissioners and War- 
dens all the service in their power, by information or 
otherwise; in fact, should be fish and game protectors, 
and no person should be permitted to be a guide who 
will not do this. It can readily be seen that with this large 
number of persons directly interested in aiding in the 
enforcement of the fish and game laws, a much better sys- 
tem of wardenship would be carried on; in fact, those who 
are most conversant with the question of game protection 
in Maine thoroughly belicA'^e that without a system of 
laws requiring the registration of guides, and prescribing 
certain duties for them to perform to the State, it will 
be practically impossible to do very much to protect 
game, more than the enactment of restrictive laws; it has 
been said on the part of timber land owners of the State, 
that all non-residents who come to Maine to hunt or 
camp in the forests should be compelled to hire regis- 
tered guides to accompany them during their trijis 
through the woods. 
The guides, of course, as a rule, favor such a law. But 
a criticism of selfish interest might attach to this position 
on the part of the guides. In case of the timber Ian J 
owner selfishness cannot be alleged. The lumbermen ar- 
gue the importance of their interests and the nece.ssity of 
protecting them. It has been shown beyond question "that 
too often parties of outside, sportsmen who visit Maine 
and go into the forests without guides are either igno- 
rant or careless regarding tlie laws regulating the setting 
of fires in the woods. The State can most effectively pro- 
tect not only its game, but the forests of the State, 
through the "guide registration law." The guides under- 
stand, or can be made to understand, the proper places 
and ways of building camp fires, and can be made tc real- 
ize the importance of having these fires extinguished be- 
fore leaving the camping ground, and no other class of 
persons can, other than those directly interested. With 
experienced woodsmen for guides for all sporting parties, 
tlie wild land owners would feel that they had a reason- 
able guarantee of safety against forest fires. 
Much has been stated in the press in relation to care- 
lessness with firearnis and the consequent loss of human 
life. That such occurrences are possible in these days at 
first might seem almost incredible. But that they do 
happen ought to impress upon men who go htmting or 
shooting the fact that firearms are dangerous alike to 
those who carry them and to those within their range, 
Even sportsmen who are not accustomed to the use of 
firearms need not fear these accidents, if they employ 
skilled guides and follow their instructions concerning 
the carrying and use of their firearms. In connection with 
this subject it may be remarked that it has been seriously 
considered whether it be not better to restrict the use of 
powder used in hunting big game to black powder, for- 
bidding the use of the smokeless variety, and in the more 
thickly settled countries to allow in hunting large game 
only the use of shotguns. 
In summing up the benefits to be derived from the 
guides' registration law, which has now been so much dis- 
cussed that it is not only thoroughly understood by Maine 
people, but by those of other States who are interested in 
the preservation of the large game, it must not be for- 
gotten that other States are beginning to see the wisdom 
of this law, and talk of adopting it, as in Colorado, where 
the Commissioner has thoroughl}^ investigated the Maine 
law, and gives it his emphatic approval. 
The advantage to be received by timber land owners 
throughout the State, by the extra precautions which reg- 
istered guides will take against fires, is the first great ben- 
efit to be derived from this law. And equal in importance 
is the comparative safety which a hunting party will de- 
rive from the small chances of accidents or of being lost 
in the wilderness. 
Then comes the benefit to be derived by the State in 
having these personally interested wardens to supplement 
the efforts made by the State to preserve and protect the 
game which annually brings so large an income into the 
State, besides furnishing employment to hundreds of men 
in a legitimate business of guiding sportsmen. 
That this law is wise and just almost everyone at this 
thne admits. That it is constitutional no one doubts at 
the present time, the highest court in the country, in an 
opinion written by Chief Justice Fuller, of the United 
States Supreme Court, having decided that the game of 
a State is the property of that State, and any restrictions 
which the supreme authority may determine may be 
placed upon the taking of it. 
No man or party should be allowe"d to traverse or camp 
in the game preserves of the State with firearms in close 
time without a registered guide. The use of Winchester 
rifles for fish poles — rods — has become altogether too 
common. Hundreds of parties are found camping in the 
forests of Maine every year in July, August and Septein- 
ber, and in nearl}' every instance have rifles and kill 
deer; nor is it possible to prevent it. No warden system 
we have ever had, or can hope to have under present con- 
ditions, can reach and preyent this state of affairs. The 
guides can stop it, and it is argued with great plausibility 
that if it was lawful to take deer during these months for 
food purposes only, under such rules and regulations as 
the Commissioners should from time to time establish, 
that the guides would be relieved of being parties acces- 
sory to the illegal killing, and would see to it that the 
law was obeyed, and that no more deer would be killed 
during^these months than are now, and the State would 
derive 'many thousands of dollars income for deer thus 
taken. 
We are pleased to report that so far as summer killing 
of moose is concerned, the guides are almost all of them 
against it, and are willing to join with us to prevent it as 
far as possible. 
It is otherwise with the summer killing of deer for 
food purposes, and also of moose during the two weeks 
preceding open season; many guides seem willing to as- 
sist their employers in this illegal killing. This is a 
lamentable fact, causing us a great deal of trouble and ex- 
pense. 
It seems to us that the guide who does this, after the 
State has done and is doing so much to furnish him with 
employment, deserves the strongest condemnation, and 
should be made to suffer a severe penalty in consequence. 
We favor the granting all the open season for game that 
can be done with safety, but when open time is once fixed, 
of compelling the guides to conform with the law strictly 
and absolutely, or quit the'business. It is largely in their 
power to either improve or injure the hunting business, 
and assist very materially in causing a less demand on 
the State treasury in order to prevent poaching. In aur 
opinion those who are willing to cheerfully assist on 
these lines should be allowed to continue the business, 
but those who are not should be barred from guiding. 
By adopting this course, providing sufficient warden 
force to prevent hide hunting and slaughtering for woods 
camps, or in other words confining the hunting to the 
present open season, we are satisfied that the supply of 
large game will last for an indefinite time. 
Game Birds« 
All reports received from wardens, guides and sports- 
men emphasize the fact that there is a great scarcity of 
partridges in the State generally, although in some partic- 
ular localities they have been reported as plenty. It would 
seem that the supply is growing steadily less. Interested 
persons pretty generally agree that market hunting is the 
real cause of it, although many other reasons are sug- 
gested, such as foxes, hawks and deep crusty snows in 
winter and cold, wet weather in spring time. 
It has been suggested by a considerable number of ob- 
servant persons that a close time of two years be placed 
upon them to allow them to multiply, before they are en- 
tirely exterminated in this State. So far as we have been 
able to ascertain the minds of those interested, by exten- 
sive correspondence and thousands of circulars sent, it 
seems to be the prevailing opinion that the sale of par- 
tridges should be absolutely prevented for at least a term 
of years, or if not entirely prohibited by law, their sate 
should be restricted and regulated in the same manner 
as the traffic in deer is at present restricted and regulated. 
Others suggest that the use of dogs in hunting these birds 
should be prohibited. We have used our best endeavors 
to look carefully into the matter, as we deem it of great 
importance to the State, and trust that such action will 
be taken by the law-making power as will preserve this 
most valuable of all indigenous Maine game birds from 
extermination, or nearly so. ' 
Boston, Jan. t6.— With the Maine papers devoted to 
pushing the fishirfg and shooting interests of that State 
the close .season has not yet begun. Their columns are 
yet bristling with stories of shooting; their being no close 
season on their voices. They are now telling of the last 
snowshoe hunts of the gijides. At each hunt each guide 
succeeds in taking his two deer. Probably he did not 
kill them during the early open season. Really one gets 
tired of so much slaughter, and wonders if it is possible 
for any game supply on earth to stand up under it. In the 
meantime the Augusta lawmakers are at the game also. 
One of the most important measures introduced thus far 
is one by Representative Smith, of Presque Isle. It 
proposes a license system for large game hunters. I hear 
that the matter is provoking much discussion, there being 
very warm adherents for the measure, as well as equally 
strenuous objectors. Section t of the bill reads: 
"No person shall hunt, kill or take any moose, deer or 
caribou without first having procured the State hunting 
license therefore hereinafter provided, and having such 
license in his possession during the time he is engaged in 
hunting, killing or taking moose, deer or caribou." 
The bill further provides that the State hunting license 
shall be issued by the fish and game commissioners. Only 
one license shall be issued to the same person in one year. 
Non-residents shall pay for the license $5, and residents 
of the State $1. Each license shall have one coupon at- 
tached, which entitles the holder to one moose; another 
coupon for one caribou, and two coupons for one deer 
each. The money received for these licenses shall be paid 
by the commissioners to the State Treasurer, to be used 
for the purpose of game protection. 
Another very important measure is to be proposed by 
the Maine Fish and Game Association. It proposes to 
allow of the taking of deer in the month of September, by 
the paying of a fee of ?6 for the privilege. This measure 
is greatly favored by the camp and hotel proprietors. A 
number of the prominent timber land owners are said to 
have consented to the plan, provided the hunter hunts the 
deer under the direction of a licensed guide. Commis- 
sioner Carleton is said to have received letters from 250 
soprtsmen who visited Maine last year, favoring the plan 
— doubtless answers to his most peculiar circular, that 
the Forest and Stream has already published. He does 
not say anything about those who have replied opposing 
the measure. Neither does he tell the Association that his 
circular was not forwarded to prominent camp owners on 
the Maine lakes— men who have visited Maine for years, 
and have been willing to uphold such game laws as were 
deemed for the good of the game protected. I catr count a 
number of such camp owners who have not received Mr. 
Carleton' s circular. Special. 
South Haven, Mich. — I have taken your entertaining 
and useful paper for nearly thirty years, and I find I need 
it all the more since the game has nearly disappeared from 
our locality. ' _ _ H. W. S. 
Old Bob Gerry, of Hyde. 
The Eagle's Claw and Forty-six Bears. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I notice in your issue of Jan. 14 that Curator Brimley, 
of the State Museum at Raleigh, advertises for bears for 
specimens, therefore I write to say that if he will send 
into Hyde, Beaufort or Tyrrell counties, which occupy 
the peninstda lying between Pamlico and Albemarle 
sounds, in North Carolina, he can get all the bears he cares 
to give room to. If any one has lost any bears, that is 
the location to find them. 
This intersound region is divided into alternating areas 
of swamp, cornfield and prairie, or savanna, with here 
and there a lake or an apple orchard thrown in; and the 
bears trade from one to the other, according to the sea- 
son of the year, or as they have opporttmity. These sa- 
vannas are used almost universally as cattle ranges, and 
there have been at times large stock companies which 
grazed many hundreds of heads. In the early spring 
time, before vegetation has sprouted, the bears feed^ on 
the young junipers (white cedar), by stripping off the 
bark and sucking the sap. Later on they eat young ferns 
and all kinds of new growth, and insects ; and afterward 
worthberries, coon berries and the like. Then they climl 
the black gums for the fruit, taking the green corn next 
and then the nuts and acorns, and from fall to spring 
destroy cattle and hogs. In the green corn season it is the 
easiest thing in the world for them to come out of the 
marginal swamps by the fields and regale themselves on 
the farmers' roasting ears; and when cattle are running in 
the winter and berries and mast are done (gone?), and 
the cow peas and corn are stacked or housed, they natural- 
ly take to fresh meat. In -fact, everything goes then. 
Stock yard and hog pen are not exempt, even when in 
close proximity to the dwellings. In hard winters, which 
liappen periodically, the havoc among the herds has been 
so great that stringent measures have been employed to 
exterminate the ursine depredators. Spring guns, traps, 
deadfalls, poison, side-hunts and drives have been put into 
active use, and scores of carcasses have been gathered in. 
Still the slaughter continued among the cattle, and the 
sinnaber bears continued to get in their work, untU their 
numbers were decimated. [Sinnabers are cattle bears, and 
always carry a white spot on the breast. Hog bears are 
smaller, and different. Dr. C. H. Merriam, please notice.] 
At the last the cattle were afraid to go into the slashes at 
all, and kept entirely to the savannas. The bears would 
climb the junipers, gums, and cypresses, where the trails 
passed, and lying ak'ng the extended limbs drop like 
panthers down upon the luckless animals passing be- 
neath, sucking the blood from their necks and clinging to 
them as they ran. In the end the "critter" would succumb 
from freight, bleeding or exhaustion, and die miserably. 
A good many years ago, I think it was as long ago as 
1876, this nuisance got to be so unbearable that a wealthy 
cattle company operating in Hyde engaged the services of 
a shrewd colored man named Bob Gerry to clean the 
bears out. Gerry had been a valet of Stephen Whitney, of 
New Haven, Ct., during the Civil War, and after its 
close went with him to New Haven. He knew a thing or 
two. It was about the time the eagle claw trap was in- 
vented, and advertised in Forest and Stream, and Bob 
obtained some extra large ones, big enough to take in a 
bear's head like the clutch of a human hand. Baiting 
these with rare chunks of fresh pork, he hung them up 
by chains to the lower limbs of the junipers and gums, 
within the length of a bear's body reach, and of course 
when bruin reached for them he was caught beyond re- 
plevin or reprieve. The eagle claw held him firmly by the 
head, and all the artifices of his brain and dexterous 
claws could not unclasp the relentless grip. By this 
method and the use of traps and spring guns. Bob bagged 
forty-six bears in one season, filling many tubs and bar- 
rels with lard and hams, and shipping the_ meat to mar- 
ket, while the pelts brought $15 to $18 apiece, according 
to size. But there are others, big ones, scaling twice 
20olbs. apiece; and Curator Brimley can take his pick of 
the lot by sending his order to Bob, or the postmasters 
of Pantego, Roper or Belhaven, Bob is seventy-"-"'^*- 
years old now, but he "works in a shingle swamp al 
same. Charles Hallo 
Massachusetts Covers. 
Fitchburg, Mass., Jan. 14. — Editor Forest and Sti 
Here is a game report, which I take from our pa{ 
to-day, about the game conditions in Worcester c( 
Fitchburg is in Worcester county, but our gun cluu irAs 
made sad havoc with these infringers of the law, and like- 
wise created a healthy sentiment on bird selling. But we 
ought to have in Massachusetts a law on all game birds 
from Dec. i to Oct. i. Why won't the Forest and Stream 
advocate that for its Massachusetts sportsmen.' W. 
The report reads; 
Ruffed grouse, quail and woodcock are under the pro- 
tecting wing of the law. The season has been below the 
average in number of birds killed. The work of Worces- 
ter County Game Protective Association in liberating 
quail last spring has won over to the propagation idea the 
most confirmed of doubters. Quail have been found in 
abundance and in unusually large flocks. As to woodcock 
the flights were about the average of the past half-dozen 
years, and for three or four weeks, beginning about Oct. 
10, large numbers of flight birds were bagged. 
Along with the close of the season there arises the an- 
nual agitation of dickering the game laws. The ques- 
tion of shortening the open season to cut out the month of 
December and perhaps the fifteen days of September is 
annually raised by far-seeing sport.smen, who predict the 
extermination of the New England partridge, properly 
called the ruffed grouse. 
By the alarmist it is predicted that the pa.rtridge is 
doomed to the fate of the wild pigeon and the bison. Un- 
like trout and the game fish, the propagation of partridges 
in captivity has been proved an impossibility, and the 
choicest of the game birds of ihe country is doomed to 
extinction, even within the present generation, under the 
wholesale slaughter now legalized. 
An official of Worcester County Game Protective As- 
sociation says that every relia.ble authority preflicts the 
