82 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jam. 14, :8gg, 
dom may require smashing land terrapins against a stump 
and not on your head. He is an interesting creature. 
For some cause he does not frequent the sand liills in 
winter. 
Tlie next morning, after a chase in which ah of us, 
yelled ourselves hoarse, and Old Tom, with a recklessness 
that disgusted our pick-up hound, hotly pursvted a bear 
that hung tenaciously to the thick swamp on the shore 
of a large lake, we returned to camp to move to a mure 
promising deer country, twenty miles distant. The trail 
north of the railroad led for a time along the Florida 
backbone, a hilly culmination of water sheds imusuully 
rough for this State, then through Hat woods, where there 
were shots at sandhill cranes that approached with loud 
■'Tiarung-karungs," bell-like music, notes of derision when 
•tliey were safely beyond range. It is said that the meat of 
these birds, when properly cooked, is equal to turkey — no 
-doubt to persons with vivid imaginations, Progress was 
interrupted several times on the way to shoot quad, and 
when we stopped near a grass lake after nightfall the 
■overcast sky caused a pitch darkness that made it neces- 
sary to hunt fuel with our feet. The tent was not set 
up, and when a deluge came about midnight there was 
wrangling of men and dogs in solid blackness awful to 
hear. Ben, a hero, at the first sign of light cut a tent 
pole. 
Day broke on a dreary world. Our condition was piti- 
ful ; clothing and blankets were saturated , all of us 
shivered in concert with shivering dogs ; mule and l';orse 
stood with heads down and feet in a bunch, laking the 
drenching on humped backs; a blue heron down shore 
croaked anathemas either at a passing kindfisher for fly- 
ing so near a gentleman's topknot, or at the weather; the 
^mailer bird uii^wercd back sharply, then lit on a snag to 
mope; the only living creature in sight unai^eotcd was a 
large 'gator, that moved about over by the grass island. 
When a roaring fire, boiling coffee, and food from the 
boxes had revived our spirits, we regjr.-ied our quarters 
as very cozy for such a morning. The storm abated 
after awhile, and three of the party went out to still- 
hunt, while Joab and I dried clothing. When they re- 
turned about noon with a large gobbler, shot by the Doc- 
tor, we ate dinner and resumed out journey to regions 
ahead, where turkeys would be plentiful and' deer would 
run through camp. Joab and I followed the edge of 
the ilatwoods with the teams, while the other menibers 
of our party hunted sand hills on the right. My com- 
psnion had not been in that part of the wilderness for 
years, but he knew every cow crossing and every dead 
snag in the swamp to the left; while such mysteries as 
"upper-cut," "under-bit" and "swallow fork" on the ears 
of cattle we passed were easy reading, by which he 
identified each old sukey without hesitating. Men who 
have spent their livesv in tlie woods are never dull com- 
panions. 
When we came to the paradise ahead, to insure a camp 
that would be a credit to our party, all of us went out to 
select pole and stakes, then Ben cut enough light wood to 
till a railroad contract. The clouds, utterly discouraged 
by such preparations, fled and gave place to a clear sky 
and shining sun. Clothing of every description was soon 
drying on ropes about a roar of blazing fat wood, while 
blankets of startling hues fought wind from the tops of 
saplings, and men in shocking costumes either moved 
daintily about the fire or danced lively can-cans on 
treacherous coals. It was all very picturesque. 
The baying of a hound in the distance caused us, 
elothed as we were, to rush for stands, where we spent a 
breez}' half-hour waiting for a deer that had passed with- 
in a few rods of camp, while we were at work. If the 
signs had indicated a gait faster than an amble, the impu- 
dence of passing so near us might have seemed less. 
Julia, the mule, had noticed the game, or something about 
that time, but none of us had thought to provide her 
with a gun. The strange dog fled at sight of us — prob- 
ably to spread a report in canine circles that some very 
unusual apparitions haunted our part of the wilderness. 
Soon after we had 'resumed our clothing the breeze 
fell and trees hushed their musical lull. No bird calls 
were to be heard then, no insect noises, no songs even of 
belated grasshopper or earh^ rising katydid, the lowing 
of distant cattle being the only sounds besides our own 
voices. Conversation became subdued and laughter 
seemed impertinent. It was a time to meditate — to recall 
the past and plan the future — a season, in fact, for quick- 
ened fancy to think of supper. The rosy sun kissed earth 
^dieu, then hid behind a cypress swamp. And it was 
niglit. And Morgan unmasked a skillet. 
The next morning we followed the foot of the sand 
hills for several miles, and then crossed a wide timbered 
ford on the left, waist deep at places, where minnows 
hung suspended in the brown tinted current, and air plants 
grew from arching moss manes on limbs overhead. The 
ranks of cypress knees, bottle shape in form, many of 
them shoulder high, garbed with drab bark, were not 
unlike statued pygmies with concealing mantles. Musical 
echoes of our w-ading came back to us there as if we were 
in a cavern, and the voices of my companions discussing 
the nosing abilities of our pick-up hound had a decided 
melody in' them. We emerged from this into a flat coun- 
try, where there were a few scattered pine trees and a 
number of green island-like cypresri ponds in sight, the 
latter promising cover for game and easily surrounded. 
Nearly the first of these ponds rewarded us- with game. 
While my companions were rushing for stands, and the 
hounds were jubilating in the wooded pond, a deer burst 
from cover within range of where I stood, and after 
clearing with a few high leaps the surrounding belt of 
low palmettoes, streaked off at the top of his speed, with 
two reports of my gun echoing in his wake. At first sight 
he appeared to be huge ; then seen over gyrating gun- 
barrels he rapidly diminished to the tiniest proportions ; 
resolved into a gray thread after my first shot, his where- . 
abouts became uncertain. I fired my second shot at any 
place in the gray line. The hounds were soon baying 
lustily in the swamp, quarter of a mile distant, where the 
game had disappeared, and afterward we" found the deer 
there with a number of buckshot through him, dead 
enough after his race. That afternoon Joab made a 
rice piirlew and Doctor treated us to griddle cakes. 
Two mornings later Joab and Morgan left in one direc- 
tion, the rest of us in another, and our division started a 
large buck near the place where I had made my kill. 
^Vhen we returned about noon Morgan was seen laboring 
m the distance under a large deer, accompanied by Joab, 
who walked with a proud step, for the latter had killed his 
meat ; an event that put an end to our hunt, but one that 
might induce Joab to go with us on another trip. Striking 
camp about dinner, and packing wagons for the last 
time, .seemed like the breaking up of a happy family; our 
surroundings had become so familiar and my companions 
had been so agreeable that it was with keen regret I per- 
formed my part in these final preparations for our de- 
parture. 
On the way home in the afternoon, through bright 
forest, we frequently announced the success of our trip 
by yodelling to log dwellings near cane fields; music that 
is omitted where there is no game aboard. Those Florida 
"cow calls" are pleasing to the ear; when subdued by 
distance and forest they are more delightful than thrush 
music. Excuse me, I am a little hoarse and cannot do 
justice to the following "call": "Yi-hi-i-i-i-e-e, 3'ah-ho- 
0-0-we-oo-ow-un, yah-hay-ay-ay-e-ow-o-eti, ye-hoo-oo- 
00-we-e-o-on, yi-i-i, hi-i-i, ye-e-e-e-ippo !" That night 
after Morgan and Joab had parted from us on the road 
their cow calls came back from a great distance in cooing 
tones that might have been songs of sirens wooing us to 
a forest life; music, indeed, to dream of later at home, 
and to recall long after I had told my last acquaintance 
al! about our hunt — and had astonished him. 
H. R. Steiger. 
Massachusetts Game Notes. 
Danver-s, Mass., Jan. i. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Another gunning season is scratched off of our lives as far 
as game birds are concerned. I think that last fall was 
fully up to the average. I heard of one large flock of 
quail seen about a week ago, and unless the snow kills 
them off there ought to be enough left for seed. The 
local fox hunters have killed more foxes this year than 
usual. Alessrs. Beckford and Langdon are high men. Mr. 
Frank Killarn, o'f Topsfield, has killed many partridges, 
but says he hasrt''t found many quail. 
We have some of the best covers here for partridges of 
any in the State. Ijiut some four or five old worthless repro- 
bates make a business of snaring- all the young birds with- 
in about three weeks' time, and by the time a man has a 
chance to go out ht will find old snares and no birds. 
The Massachusetts Rod and Gun Club, of Boston, sent 
up some of their officers in the town adjoining, and cap- 
tured one man and had him convicted. 
The gun club I think is dead; we haven't had a shoot 
for nearly a year ; principal cause, no suitable range. Rifle 
shooting is a thing of the past. We used to have a good 
club here; but the best shots went into the militia; then 
the range was transferred over to them, and now they 
are with Uncle Sam, and the range is going to rack and 
ruin. . 
How I would like to be in the South with the wild 
geesCi this winter instead of up here North, freezing up. 
John W. Babbitt. 
Out fof Bears. 
J. L. K. sends us a recent issue of the New Berne (N. 
C. ) Journal, in which appears this advertisettiefit: ■ 
BEARS WANTED. 
The 'State Museum wants two large bears — the larger 
the better — in good order for stuffing, prepared as follows : 
.'Vs soon as possible after killing remove all entrails and 
rub plenty of salt on inside of body, and put a lot in the 
mouth. Fill up the body with hay, straw, shucks or any 
other material that is quite dry and ship at once by ex- 
press, charges collect, to the State Museum, Raleigh, N. 
C. We want nothing under 20olbs. weight. Will pay 10 
cents per pound, gross weight, for two bears of over 
20olbs. each that reach here in good condition. Money 
sent immediately on receipt of animal. 
H. H. Brimley, Curator. 
State Museum. 
Gangs and Flocks. 
Baltimore, Jan. 5. — Editor Forest and Stream: Not- 
ing the purist in your editorial of last issue with his fanci- 
ful grievance over the term hunting for shooting, what 
will he say that when a boy, fifty years ago, in Vir- 
ginia, we called a flock of wild turkeys a gang of turkeys. 
We always managed to get one for Christmas and another 
for New Year's dinner. We didn't know much about 
Thanksgiving Day at that date down where I was raised, 
but were always ready to give thanks for the good things, 
tame and wild, that the good Lord sent us, and which we 
could procure by our own exertions. What's in a name? 
A rose by any other name — but that is worn out. 
E. S. Y. 
[Gang is still the approved term as applied to turkeys.] 
Quail in Virginia. 
Chase City, Va. — Quail have never been so plentiful 
as this season. Sportsmen from the North who have re- 
cently visited this place pronounce the hunting the finest 
to be found anywhere. As many as seven deer have been 
found in one herd. 
Polk Miller, in a recent letter, says : "I have hunted 
quail for forty years, and in no section of the State is the 
hunting as good as in the county of Mecklenburg. I find 
more deer, turkeys and quail there than ever before." 
Chas. A. Ochen, of Baltimore, who has been coming 
here for years, says: 'T never enjoyed a vacation more 
anywhere, and as for game, I consider the vicinity of 
= Chase City. a_ veritable sportsman's paradise." 
W. D: Paxton. 
New York Forest Interests. 
, . From Gov. Roosevelt's Message. 
The Forest Reserve will be a monument to the wisdom 
of its founders. It it very important that in acquiring 
additional land we should not forget that it is even more 
necessary to preserve what we have already acquired and 
to protect it, not only against the depredations of man, 
but against the most serious of all enemies to forest.? — fire. 
One or two really great forest fires might do damage 
which could not be repaired for a generation. The laws 
for the protection of the game and fish of the wilderness 
seem to be working well, but they should be more rigidly 
enforced. 
Proprietors of fishing and hunting resorts will find it profitable 
to advertise them in Fokest and Stream, 
A Little of Everything. 
BY FRED MATHER. 
In a newspaper now before me an unknown writer 
uses this quotation: "Our memories go back but a lit- 
tle way, or, if they go back far, they pick up here a date 
and there an occurrence half forgotten." This accords 
with my present humor, for after writing the heading of 
this screed I was vainly trying to recall if I first met it 
in the Rigvedas, the Brahmanas, or in Josh Billings' 
Almanac. Anyhow, the story ran that a wayfarer seated 
himself in a gasthaus in the ancient city of Oshkosh and 
called loudly for the garcon. When "that person stood 
bowing before him in a spike-tailed coat, with serviette 
on arm, the hungry traveler in a foreign land looked 
into his ''Ollendorf" and asked: "Wat kin yer give 
me?" The waiter sized him up. The collar had been 
on duty for three days without relief, he had slept in 
his cravat and he evidently had no credit with the bar- 
ber. Therefore he cautiously replied, in order to hedge 
if he was entertaining an angel unaware: "Sir Knight, 
our larder is so well stocked that I can offer you a little 
of everything." Again the wayfarer consulted his book 
of colloquialisms and read therefrom: "A little of every- 
thing is a synonym for hash," And he declined the 
proffered dish. 
This parable has been cited in order to warn the reader 
who may not incline, in a gastronomic way, to indulge 
in such things as hash and chowders, that this paper 
will be "a little of everything." 
Frogs. 
In Forest and Stream for Sept. 10, 1898, I wrote 
about "Our Frogs," and in the issue of Oct. 15 I wrote 
"More About Frogs." That exhausted the subject as 
far as my knowledge went. I nroved to my satisfaction 
that frog culture was not practicable. A recent article 
in the New York Press says that Miss Mona Selden. of 
Friendship, N. J., bought a lot of swamp land — some 
20 acres — at $2 per acre, and fenced it in. Then she 
"spent the winter in reading everything she could get 
hold of that told about frogs, and when she wasn't read- 
ing she was out in a barn shooting at a mark with a 
target rifle." 
The story goes on about her miarksmanship and ship- 
ping frogs to New York and clearing $1,500 the first 
season. Again I quote: "Then those who laughed at 
her went to shooting frogs and sold them to her, while 
she shipped them to New York at a nice profit. That 
was five years ago. She has since made from $.3,000 to 
$5,000 a year in the business." 
Mark you. there is no word of frog cuUure in this 
yarn. .A.ccording to the story, she merely shot and 
marketed wild frogs. Do I belieA-e it? No, my child, 
frogs do not attain maturity in a year, nor in four j'-ears. 
A' marsh of 20 acres, where no frogging had been done 
by man or woman, might yield 30 adult frogs rer acre, 
or 600 pairs of legs. ■ These might weigh 40Z. per pair, 
or isolbs., which at 40 cents per lb. would yield $60, and 
this seems to be a liberal estim te. At Blackford's frogs 
retail for 40c.@$i per lb., according to season, and it 
is reasonable to suppose that 40 cents is" a fair price to 
the shipper. A little arithmetic is sometimes good to 
look at. Miss Selden should have marketed 3,75olbs. 
of frogs to harvest $1,500, and as it takes a large frog to 
dress 40Z., she must have gathered m her first year at 
least 15,000 frogs from her 20 acres, which would aflow 
about two and a quarter frogs to i sq. ft., which is a more 
liberal allowance of frogs than I remember to have 
seen. 
There is something wrong in the figures of the Press, 
or in mine. But facts are what we want when we go 
out for them, and in the interest of truth it is desira- 
ble that either Miss Selden or some one who knows the 
facts about the frog farm at Friendship. N. J., if there 
is such a place, write a plain, unvarnished tale about this 
frog story and put all such skeptics as the writer on the 
way to believe in "frog farms." I will see that a copy 
of FosEST AND Stream Containing this article goes to 
Miss Selden, with a letter calling attention to it. Until 
then we rest, 
Mr. J. H. Mclllree, Assistant Commissioner of the 
Northwest Mounted Police, writes: "In Forest and 
Stream of Sept. 10 you told us something about frogs, 
and therein say: 'The frog is a solitary animal, never in 
the compatiy of another, except in the spring of the 
year.' I saw something so opposed to that statement 
that you might like to hear about it. While grouse 
shooting in the Cypress Hills, a range about 40 miles 
north of the 49th parallel, and about due north from Fort 
Assineboine, Mont., toward the end of September, we 
always rested for an hour or two at one of the numer- 
ous springs to be found all over the hills. These springs 
are found well up to the heads of all the coulees running 
into the hills, and are all ice-cold. Around tlie springs 
and the little creeks formed by them, as long as they ran 
above the ground, were literally myriads of frogs. They 
were 3 to 4in. in length and were green, with ciark spots 
on the back. They were in such numbers that there 
\ivas a leaping mass in front of us as we walked, and it 
was hard to keep them out of the springs long enough to 
get water. If I had read your article previously, I would 
have taken jsarticular notice of them "as to description, 
and also what they were feeding on. Pardon me, as a 
stranger," etc. ; . - ^ 
There is nothing to pardon. I: thank Mr. Mclflree 
for the letter, from which I will again quote, for it gives - 
chance for an explanation. His adventure with the frogs 
shows that I should have added to my statement the 
words: "Or when about to bed m the springs for win- 
ter." In the lakes and rivers the frogs bed in the mud 
singly, as a rule, but the last of September above par- 
allel 49 must warn froggie that winter is near and that 
he had better seek the springs, where there is an even 
temperature all winter, and I have .seen a dozen taken 
