Jan. 7, 1899 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
11 
tional Park will amply silfRce for the further and better 
protection of large game. 
Second — While we favor the extension of the National 
Park to the south line of the Teton Timber Reserve, we 
are unalterably opposed to any other or further exten- 
sion of the south boundary of the Park so as to en- 
croach upon or curtail the present limits of the Jackson's 
Hole settlement. We do not believe that it would be 
either good policy or economy for the National Govern- 
ment to incur the enormous expense necessary to oust 
the bona fide settlers of a large and prosperous com- 
munity, merely to extend the game area of the National 
Park: and further, we are firmly convinced that the 
addition of the Teton Timber Reserve will satisfy all 
reasonable demands for an extension of the National 
Park toward the south, and at the same time allay all 
apprehensions of actual and intending settlers in the 
Jackson's Hole country proper. 
New' England Sportsmen. 
Boston, Jan.^2. — Dr. Heber Bishop received the con- 
gratulations of" his friends at the Copley Square Hotel 
"Saturday evening, the occasion being the arrival of the big- 
bull moose killed in New Brunswick by the Doctor, and 
already noted in the Forest and Strf.am. The big animal 
was on exhibition, having arrived that dav by boat. A 
lunch was served and the big bull was admired by about 
200 of the Doctor's friends, and prominent members of 
the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association. 
The taxidermist is to commence work at once on the 
moose. He is to be mounted on his own skeleton, pur- 
posely for the New York Sportsmen's Exhibition in 
March. 
A Bangor, Me., dispatch of Saturday says that the 
shooting of big game in Maine is ended for the season of 
1898. Reports at hand show the season to have been the 
greatest on record. Returns from the Bangor and Aroos- 
took region, and other sections, show the number of deer 
killed by sportsmen and shipped by the transportation 
companies to have been at least 3.032. 159 moose and 58 
caribou. More hunters have been in the woods than ever, 
and they have obtained more game. The records of game 
transported for six 5'-ears are as follows : 
Year. Deer. Moose. Caribou. 
1894 1. 001 45 50 
1895 1. 581 112 130 
-1896 2.245 133 130 
1897 2,940 139 78 
1898 3W2 159 59 
It is proposed to form a brotherhood of Maine guides. 
The Rangeley Guides' Association is in receipt of com- 
munications from the Moosehead Guides' Association, 
proposing a State or general association, for the purpose 
of advancing the welfare of the craft throughout the 
State. It is proposed to send representative guides to 
Augusta early in the present session of the Legislature, to 
formulate a State association. 
One of the most remarkable deer shooting seasons 
Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont have ever passed 
through has closed with the old year. The early slaughter 
was great, followed by snows most remarkably early. 
Snow fell before Thanksgiving and tnade good tracking, 
and a great many deer were taken. This snow did not go 
away, as is usually the case, but was followed at Thanks- 
giving, and a few days after with heavier snows, making 
good snowshoeing e^'er since. With these heavy snows 
sportsmen from the cities seemed to stop, but not so 
the local hunters. They have gone after the deer with un- 
usual vigor, and the slaughter has been great. The snow 
drove the deer to yarding early, and the hunters on snow- 
shoes have found them easy prey. To find a yard of deer 
has been to easily take them all. True, the law does not 
permit of but two deer to the individual, but I met a 
hunter the other day, a citizen of Maine, who coolly told 
me that he had taken his own two deer, and two each for 
his three boys. I suggested that he should have taken 
two for his wife and each of his daughters, and he did not 
see the joke, but admitted that he should have done so but 
for the reason that he had not had the time since the 
snow came on. 
This great slaughter of deer by local hunters will never 
appear in any records. The railroads do not transport 
them openly at least, and "registered guides" will have no 
occasion to make returns of them. But of one thing I am 
very sure, many of them have found their way directly 
into the Boston markets. I counted thirteen fresh arrivals 
of deer hung up in front of one Faneuil Hall Market 
store on Saturday. That they came from Maine there 
4s not the least doubt, and it is equally sure that they 
were the results of recent hunting. Almost every market 
in Boston has been ornamented with fresh arrivals of deer 
within a couple of weeks. Will the coming Maine Legisla- 
ture do anything to stop this shipping of deer to market? 
Or is there sufficient law already, and will the commis- 
sioners see that illegal shipping is stopped? 
Special. 
Indiana Quail, 
Orestes, Ind., Dec. 22. — Quail are very plentiful out 
here, and good cover being available the birds have 
escaped the onslaught usual in a more open, thickly settled 
country. There is hardly a gtubble field about that is 
not bounded on one side by a wood or thicket. Most 
of my time being occupied, I have had to be satisfied 
with a two or three hours' tramp in the morning, several 
days, bagging from five to ten birds. The otlier day T 
started with my dog for a trainp. When about a quarter 
of a mile from my house she pointed to a brier bush. 
I walked up and out came two birds. _ I dropped them 
in time for another that started a little later By that 
tim.e the rest of the bevy were free from, the bush, and 
I got two m.ore with the two remainmg shells in my 
repeater, making fixe straight shots without taking gun 
from my shoulder, three going south and two north. A_s 
there were only three or four birds got away, I did not 
follow them, but took a circular route home, not finding 
anything more to shoot at. Although quail are plentiful, 
there is hardly any other kind of game to be found 
here; #?&n tha. 'labW'ta have iiU been killed oif. ii. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
The Old Gao. 
I got a letter from my old friend the Mayor the other 
day. He is or was the Mayor, and he knows where all 
sorts of qgail and grouse are to be found, though he 
always takes me in there blindfold, and I couldn't for 
the life Of me tell where it is unless I broke my sacred 
word and licked the Mayor, neither of which things I 
should like to have to do. The letter of the Mayor says 
the quail are getting to be so thick that they are a 
positive popular detriment, and he wants aid in his 
official capacity. The partridges grow on every bush 
and fill the air in a dark continuous procession; and 
would I come and help remedy all this. Therefore to- 
day I took down the old gun and looked at the places 
on the barrels which were worn Avhite in other days. 
Also I looked through the barrels — I am glad to say 
that I could see clear through barrels, which shows the 
condition of the gun. And I have secured me some food 
for the gun, and am hunting around to see if I can find 
an old pair of shoes somewhere — for this Mayor is an 
awful walker. Should all go well, I might, unless some- 
thing happened, get over to the Mayor's place and help 
him save the region from an unduly aggressive and 
cimiulatively agglomerated excess of game. 
But it was about the old gun I wanted to speak. There 
are a great many young men who are just now grasp- 
ing in their hands some hard earned money, and who 
are just going to blow that hard earned money against a 
fine new hand-painted, chokebored gun, warranted to 
shoot 947 pellets of No. 7 shot into a half-dollar at 
40yds. My advice to these young men, if they want to 
shoot game in covei", and not at the trap, is, don't. Order 
a cj'linder bore gun instead. You won't get a cylinder 
at all, but will duly receive one which will make a 
"good pattern." Send it back, and get it "opened." 
It still won't be open. Then take a saw and saw the 
front end off the gun. and you'll help it a good deal. 
After that, ream it out some. That is what I did to my 
old gun, and it is the only good gun I know ol any- 
where. I never miss with it — except under certain un- 
avoidable and wholly extenuating' circumstances — and 
nobtjdy whoever shot this gun failed to try to steal it. 
They got it away from me one time down at Memphis, 
and I never saw it for a year, and everybody in town 
was shooting it. They fell to scrapping amon.g them- 
selves about who should shoot it most, and that was 
how I happened to get it back again. This old gun has 
killeda great many hundred birds — perhaps thousands; be- 
cause earlier and other owners and borrowers have used 
this gun much more than I get a chance to myself. I 
have to take a screwdriver along with me in the field 
when I shoot it, so T can put it together again once in a 
while. Sometimes it goes on strike, and I have to rest 
it so it will be satisfied to go to work again. Still, it g-oes 
off every once in a while, and once in a while I kill 
something when it does go off. That is why I like this 
particular gun. If there were others like it this world 
would not be so full of tears, and it wouldn't be so ftdl 
of game, either. This old gun is a cylinder, or may be 
a little bit better than that. I never aim at a quail with 
it, because that is too finicky a way of shooting, and be- 
sides is not in the least necessary. I just hold it over 
in that direction, and J always get the quail — unless 
there should, as I have above remarked, be something 
come up which is wholly unavoidable and exculpatory. 
This is a meat gun, and I'll have to be pretty badly 
broke if anybody ever gets it away from me. And the 
Mayor has a meat dog. We both have other and better 
guns and dogs, for far-off shooting and for fancy rang- 
ing, but for this close-up shooting, where the quail and 
partridges are oppressively abundant, we believe that 
the meat dog and meat gun will be about right, I have 
a notion to grease the old gun some to-day, just as a 
mark of affection. 
Distinguished Sportsmen. 
The Hartford Times, of Indiana, prints the following: 
"B. F. Davis is the crack shot of the season in this 
vicinity, so far, in killing fifteen quail at one .shot." 
The Montpelier Leader, of Ohio, prints this: "G. W. 
ShauU is the champion 'quail shot' of this section of the 
county. He took an old smoothbore rifle out one day 
last week and killed eight quail at one shot, and he says 
that it wasn't an extraordinary daj' for quail shooting 
either. This beats the record for quail shooting so far." 
Bags. 
A party of hunters froin Parsons, Kan., went into the 
Indian Nations this month and brought back five deer and 
over fifty wild turkeys. 
The sportsmen of Virden, Neb., held a side-hunt last 
week, and killed 402 rabbits. 
The Emerichsville Gun Club, of Indiana, spent three 
days in Morgan county last week, and killed 338 rabbits. 
They said if they "had not been worn out" they could 
have killed twice as many. 
The Singing Mouse. 
My friend. Prof. J. A. Balmer, now of the Agricultural 
Experiment Station at Pullman, Wash., writes me the 
following information regarding a singing mouse. If 
I am not mistaken this makes the sixth singing mouse to 
be recorded in the Forest and Stream chronicles, Mr, 
Balmer remarks : 
"I was over on Puget Sound last week and heard a 
very interesting 'singing mouse' story. T was talking 
with a friend. Mr. A. B. Leckenby, and happened to ask 
him whether he believed mice could sing. He said, 'Why, 
sure! Did I never tell you about my singing mouse?' 
"He then went on to relate how, when he was 'batching 
it' in Portland, or somcAvhere. and where the house was 
overrun bv mice, how alm.ost nightly one particular 
mouse would regale him with the most beautiful music, 
"Yes,' he said, 'I not only believe there are singing mice, 
but I firmly believe tJiat all mice singr.' He described 
how the other mice would sit on their hind legs and 
listen to this one, and he could see their little throats 
\ibratiiig as ii to burst; and lie felt sure Ihcy w<5rc sing- 
ing, but that his car was tl&t attuned fine enough to 
hear them." 
Mr. Balmer g)oes on to say : "I could tell you a nice 
story of how many hundred mountain trout we caught 
last summer, and of the bear that tried to help us fish the 
Lo Lo River, and of the two moose I met on the Eldor-i- 
do, and of the dead man at the elk lick that we are going 
in to bury next summer; but maybe you. would want to 
go along." 
How to Tan at Home. 
J. A. R., of New Orleans, La., asks the foflowmg inter- 
esting questions about tanning light hides, which T hope 
several will answer, for it is of interest. Next week I 
shall find a moment to tell what little T have learned about 
this sort of thing. Briefly, I may say now that the se- 
cret of the Indian tan is the use of animals' brains as 
grease, the use of plenty of time and labor, and the tise of 
smoke in putting on last touches. The letter follows: 
Having read your journal for the past five years, and 
knowing that few, if any, of the questions asked remained 
unanswered. I would ask any of the agreeable old-timers 
to answer this: I am sure that many sportsmen like to 
have in their den or office the skins of deer or other ani- 
mals killed in the chase, but would feel proud to say that 
such skins were tanned or dressed by their own hands. 
I have dressed several deer skins myself from directions 
found in books, but they were not satisfactory. I have 
always been anxious to know the different methods used 
by the Indians in dressing skins with the hair on. Should 
any of my brother sportsmen who are able care to trou- 
ble themselves with an answer they will greatly oblige 
"J. A. R. 
They do Ship it. 
-Vlr. H. O. Wilbur, of Philadelphia, paid this office of 
Forest and Stream a pleasant call to-day, Mr.. Wilbur 
has been out West and has oljserved that a vast amount 
of game is brought out and shipped out of several States 
which forbid that action. He wants lo know what can 
be done about it. Nothing, I imagine, but to sit and hope 
for more wardens, more vigilance and more sentiment in 
favor of game laws. Canada can keep a game law, be- 
cause Canada wants it kept. 
The Coyote. 
The yellow-haired, scrubby, scrawny, hammered-down 
wolf of the West, known univer.sally as the coyote, has up 
to recent date been regarded as a nuisance, to be pur- 
sued' on a purely Ishmaelitic basis, but it seems there is 
dawning for him a more dignified day. Over in England, 
the man who kills a fox is regarded as no better than a 
pariah, to be classified only lower than him 'who shoots 
a pig in India. Once it was thought sweet and fit to 
gather a coyote in any fashion possible, from strychnine 
to rifle. Now I learn that the .sportsmen of Colorado 
Springs have made coyote coursing a high grade social 
sport, and more than that, they are beginning to protest 
against the killing, trapping or poisoning of coyotes by 
ranchmen or other parties. There is some indignation 
against certain Colorado Springs sportsmen who go out 
gunning for coyotes, and they are told they ought to be 
a.shamed of their unsportsmanlike conduct, and should 
leave the game for the dogs. Thus are times and customs 
changed, although methinks it will yet be many a day 
before the sturdy Western rancher learns to stay his hand 
when he gets a chance at a coyote. 
The Uniform Law. 
During the ensuing month there will be local action in 
the different States on some of the features of the proposed 
uniform game law agreed upon in the Warden's Conven- 
tion in this city last month. Wisconsin will swing into 
line with this law and its provisions with very fair unan- 
imity. Wisconsin is getting ready to stop .spring shoot- 
ing. The license idea may be said to have taken firm root 
in that State, and this fact is liable to somewhat disturb 
a good many men who belong to shooting clubs in Wis- 
consin, and who may object to paying club dues, and then 
a $25 license on top of that. It seems to me that there 
has been more growth in protective sentiment in the 
State of Wisconsin this year than for the five years last 
preceding. 
In Michigan the annual meeting of the State Game and 
Fish Protective League will be held at the Hudson 
House, Lansing, on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 1:30 P. M. The 
matter of proposed changes in the game and fish laws 
will then be taken up for earnest discussion. 
In Minnesota they are getting ready to stop spring 
shooting, and we may look for pronounced action along 
the lines of the idea that the State of Minnesota owns the 
Minnesota game. This will have much to do with the 
export and sale of game. It will be a loss to Minnesota 
if Sam Fullerton goes out of office the first of the year, 
as I fear will be the case. In all the history of Western 
protection the names of S. F. Fullerton and his legal 
right-hand man, Tim Byrnes, deserve a very high place. 
With such men as these, with Senator J. Herbert Greene, 
of Milwaukee, and Attorney C. E. Whelan, of Madison, 
with Chase S. Osborne and Charlie Brewster, of Michi- 
gan, there can be something actually accomplished in the 
way of intelligent progress in game matters, and it will 
be matter of regret should any one of these d-op out of 
the ranks. 
Net Results. 
The question of non-resident deer hunting has been 
pretty well hashed over this season, but I may sum it up 
with the final report from the State of Michigan that 
that State had 10,000 hunters, who killed 3,000 deer. 
There were thirteen hunters accidentally killed and nine 
wounded, Thi§ i% the record of one State alone. 
The Indians. 
The Indians and breeds out near WiUiston, N. D., have 
been killing game illegally, and Warden Bowers is out 
with a posse after them. 
In Wisconsin the Oneida Indian reservation has been a 
favorite' hunting ground for many people from Green 
Bay, De Pere, etc. U. S. Indian Agent D. H. George has 
issued an order that whites will no longer be allowed to 
hunt on that reservation. 
Out in Minnesota the Indian troubles are temporarily 
quictod, In due time the traders will again make troubk 
