May s?, 1890. J 
40S 
loneliness of Lhc pht^ aud utir helplessnesB ao impl'eascd 
me. But the rain, which we had expected to come in 
torrents, was only a mild shower, which was almost dried 
from the bushes by the time we were ready to start for 
the ford. ' 
The long rambles through the woods, finding many 
cm-ious flowers and plants, mosses odd and lovely and 
specimens of wild cactus, with gorgeous phik and yel- 
low blossoms, was one of my chief pleasures. Often on 
the soft road near our tent, we would see tracks of deer, 
but we had no sight of one, yet it showed the possibili- 
ties of the swamp in the game season. 
But now our time was up, and all too soon we must 
go back to the city, yet so strengthened and refreshed 
for this brief sojourn with mother nature. 
The tents were packed and the tin "chinaware" stored 
in the empty provision baskets, and we awaited only our 
former assistant to come to help us with the baggage. At 
the river andlTre^spot where our canvas home had been 
for the past five days each one of us resolved that though 
this was our first, it should not be the last trip of this 
sort. For if one wants genuine rest, pleasure and en- 
joyment, I know of no place where all are better com- 
bined than among the grand old pines and cypresses of 
the Chickahominy. Annie McD. Wheeler. 
Types of Sportsmen,— III. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
When you and I were together a while ago and chat- 
ting about men and their likings for the pleasures of the 
fields and streams, and you suggested that we consider 
types of sportsmen, I thought if I spoke of a schoolboy 
that it was the beginning of the end, yet it has since 
occurred to me that I did not go back far enough, and 
if now I write you of mine that was and of myself, and 
in so doing I possibly incur the ridicule of stony-hearted 
readers (if you choose to publish these lines) I cannot 
help it. If it meets no other eyes than yours, let it pass 
as an appeal to you personally for sympathy, and if I read 
your face aright and understand the kindly look in the 
eyes back of your spectacles, you will grant the appeal 
and not cast it and myself aside. It may be that there 
are some among your readers (and I think there must be) 
who have known sorrow of a like kind, and have had the 
same yearnings and desires, and can say with me, " 'Tis 
better to have loved and lost than never to have loved 
at all." 
My reference is to a little fellow who was taken from me 
many years ago— my little boy. He whom I had planned so 
much for, he whom I had hoped to take into the green 
fields in a far different way. They told me then, and 
they tell me now, that it is all for the best, but I could 
not understand it then, and I cannot now so understand 
it, and I'm waiting to see his little face watching from 
the windows of his celestial home for my homecoming 
as he .so watched from his earthly house. Then again 
will his dimpled hands go up and his little voice repeat, 
"Papa, come," and Peter cannot say him nay. He was 
little and nearly two years old, but lie knew "more about 
me than I knew of myself, and when I held liim on my 
knee and talked to him about the singing birds and told 
him how in years to come we would go out into the 
fields with them, I believe he understood. When I took 
my gun from its place and showed it to him, he would 
say, "Ope, ope," and as his little eyes peeped through 
the glistening barrels and his laugh rang through the 
house, I was the happiest man in the world. When I 
tried to wind the fish line upon its reel he tried to lielp 
me, and his efforts snarled the silk into a more confused 
pattern than that of the carpet, and I would go down to 
his level on the floor and we would put our heads to- 
gether to study the problem. The artificial trout and 
bass flies were his especial delight, and he saw the good 
points and felt them too. I had thought to buy a little 
gun for him just as soon as he could carry it, and his 
litttle shoulder stand the recoil, and often had I looked 
into the Broadway gun store windows thinking of the 
purchase. Sundays, when his mother and sister were off 
to church and left me to care for him, how well I did it. 
Before they were fairly around the corner we played 
fishing. Is Sunday fishing of that kind wrong? In 
later years, when on some lake or beside some stream 
I wished that he might be with me that I could row laim 
about or carry him in my arms across brooks or bad 
places; when lying on blankets and balsam branches in 
the North Woods, I have looked up to the stars wonder- 
ing where among them he might be, and wishing that I 
might call him to myself. The smoke from the camp- 
fire should not touch him, no chilly wind should blow 
upon him;. I would rap him in my blanket, fold my arms 
about him and keep awake that he might sleep in safety. 
Yet it is not to be so. All that I have of him is a print 
of his moist little thumb on the inner cap of my watch case, 
a picture and a remembrance. His mother has his play- 
things, his little clothes, a pair of tiny bronze shoes 
wrinkled about the ankles and scarred in places where 
and when he walked on his uppers. I found them one 
Sabbath afternoon tucked away with ribbons and per- 
fume, and they' are a bond more binding than the min- 
ister's "I pronounce you husband and wife." He had a 
slight cold, we thought, and while away that day at my 
employment a reply came to my message, "There 
is no change." Returning at night I missed his 
face at the window, and as I entered the house 
they told me our little boy was . dying. Can you 
know what that meant to me? His first and last 
words were "Papa." The doctors went out and desola- 
tion came in. The gentle spirit had gone, and the still 
little body was ours to care for but for a few hours 
longer. My pen will not obey further. The clips of my 
glasses will not hold when wet. my collar hurts my 
throat, and I have no more to tell. 
W. W. Hastings. 
A story is told of a Chicago commission game dealer 
that a man who had two barrels of prairie chickens out of 
season sent them to him, billing them as rabbits. He 
sold the birds at a big price, but returned the shipper the 
price of rabbits at 60 cents a dozen. The fellow kicked, 
but the dealer told him that he had sold the rabbits with- 
out looking to see what they were, as they, were billed as 
rabbits, and refused to pay only for rabbits. 
A Regimental Heirloom. 
In view of the strong ties binding together the Anglo- 
Saxon brotherhood on both sides of the Atlantic, and 
as of the American army it may now be said, as of their 
brothers in the British army, they can "go anywhere and 
do anything," it may not be out of place, in the For- 
est AND Stkeam, to give a brief sketch of the history 
of one of our Queen's marching regiments, the early 
home of the writer, leading up to a sporting incident 
closely connected with its unwritten history; for atten- 
tion to sports and pastimes of a military force is a not 
unimportant part of preparation for active service. The 
regiment in question, now termed the East Yorkshire,, 
has had many changes in name and station, in peace and 
in war, since it was raised in 1685, at the time of Mon- 
mouth's rebellion. 
Its first active service was in i6go, when it was said 
by an oflicer, "We pursued them (the enemy) till we lost 
them in a fog, when they seemed like people received 
up into the clouds." 
In 1708 the regiment was engaged in driving the 
French from their position at Oudenorde. "The 
(French) army was nearly destroyed, but was preserved 
from complete annihilation by the darkness of the night." 
In 1709 it again took the field, and joined the force 
which invested Tournay. "The citadel of Tournay was 
celebrated for the multiplicity of its underground works, 
and the approaches were carried on by sinking pits and 
excavating subterranean passages to the enemy's case- 
mates and mines." 
Toward the end of 1740 the regiment embarked for 
Jamaica, and the following year it was employed on an 
expedition to Carthagena, in South America. In 1741 it 
was rechriBtelifed alter AVe pulled from heh ill ord^f that 
she flight hot bfe identified^ her breakdoVvn and our 
grievance^ having been broiight before Parliament. VVe 
were so long lost sight of and Were so much over time, 
that we were given up and included in the long list of 
hapless vessels lost at sea. 
During the stay of the regiment in that home of the 
tourist and sportsman, Fredericton, the following inci- 
dent occurred. Of the citizen of Fredericton it is well 
said by your correspondent, Mr. Risteen, "The tranquil 
river flowing by his door is a mirror of his mind. He 
is content with his lot, for, if he is secure from sudden 
attacks of affluence, he is equally safe from the withering 
disaster that comes from reckless speculation. He is Hb- 
eral in thought, conservative in action." 
At this desiralile station the officers sat round the his- 
toric, well-polished niess table one winter's evening. 
The well-worn after-dinner stories, collected in the four 
quarters of the globe, had been reproduced; and sport 
in all its branches all the world over had, as usual, been 
resorted to as a topic of conversation, when the colonel, 
anxious that a long-felt want, his special fad, should be 
supplied before he retired from the command, suggested 
that a much-needed handsome centerpiece for the mess 
table should as soon as possible be ordered from Lon- 
don, its character based upon a sporting scene, depicted 
in silver. This met with the approval of all, old and 
young, and all decided that a North American winter 
scene would be most suitable. 
Two keen sportsmen, D. arid F., therefore were de- 
tailed for this welcome duty, to proceed forthwith to the 
best hunting grounds. Both had already won their 
spurs in green woods and on barrens, and both, at this 
distance of time, with additional experience, are noW 
THE CENTER-PIECE. 
was encamped for a short time in the Island of Cuba, 
in I7sa It embarked for America and served in the at- 
taclc on Louisburg, a French settlement in the Gulf of 
it. i^awrence. In June, 1759, an expedition was organ- 
ized against Quebec, and the regiment took part in it. 
I ne Heights of Abraham were gained by a night attack 
on bept 12, and a general engagement followed, when 
General Wolfe was killed in the hour of victory. 
In 1782 a royal order was issued directing that each 
regiment should take a county name, and this regiment 
heretofore the Fifteenth, received the territorial title of 
the Yorkshire East Riding." 
To those in this nineteenth century having any ex- 
perience of the "natural thinness of the hair," it may be 
of interest to learn from a regimental order of this 
period (1782): "The hair should be turned up behind 
on a comb and loosely platted, with a black riband or 
tape in a bow-knot at the tie, which should never be 
permitted to be made too close to the head, as such a 
practice cuts the hair, which should be encouraged by 
every means to be as thick and full as possible. When 
from the natural thinness of the hair, it is not sufficient' 
a false plat must be added. As nothing promotes the 
growth of hair more than frequent combing, the soldiers 
should be enjoined to accustom themselves to do so 
rnorning and night. It will be of infinite consequence to 
the improvement of their hair to permit them to appear 
at morning roll calling with their hair only tied, and hang- 
ing down the back," 
Another subject of interest, the "whirligig of time'" 
being nowadays, on occasion, brought seriously to our 
notice, was the form of punishment of soldiers of that 
period (1786)— not a time of over-civilization: "A com- 
mon punishment for offenders among the followers of 
an army, when martial law prevailed, was the 'whirligig.' 
This was a circular wooden cage, with many apertures, 
which turned on a pivot, and whirled round with such 
velocity that the delinquent inside it soon became ex- 
tremely sick." 
Without following the regimental drum in peace and in 
war during the past century, the records bring .us to 
January, 1862, when the regiment embarked for St. 
John, N. B., in the hired transport Adelaide, which en- 
countered violent gales and was nearly lost. The ship 
considered authorities in all that concerns rod and gun. 
Two well-known skilled Indians — Chief Gabe and 
Sabatis — were selected to assist in "fetching venison" on 
this important service. In the case of these experienced 
sportsmen — red men and white — it required no refer- 
ence to Lord Wolseley's "Soldier's Pocket Book" for 
instructions in the bivouac, nor to "Clery's Minor Tac- 
tics" as to the mode of action in conducting recon- 
noitering patrols, and in preparing and carrying out an 
attack upon moose and caribou. 
The selected ground, too, for the tactical operations in 
question was all that could be desired— Gaspereaux bar- 
rens — grounds never — well, hardly ever — drawn blank. 
But man proposes ! 
I have lately, after a brief sketch of "blank days," sung 
the praises, in Forest and Stream, of "Red Letter Days" 
— which of these were our "missionary sportsmen" des- 
tined to have allotted to them? 
Day after day, alas, for many days in succession, it was a 
case of one unending blank 1 Of fresh tracks there were 
enough. Of hope there was enough. Of skill there" 
was enough. Of moose and cariboo — nil. At last, when 
hope had been nearly exhausted, when even fresh tracks 
had not been seen for many days ; when nothing apparent- 
ly was left but the final resolve to return, crestfallen and 
dejected, and to give an account, a sad account, of their 
stewardship, once more to take up the daily routine of 
barrack life, with the ever-pressing thought of the uttev 
failure of the expedition ; suddenly a bright idea flashed in. 
the mind of the red man chief — Gabriel Sacobie — as he 
awakened from a long and disturbed sleep, "We have not 
tried that *pocket' in barren No. i, near Pleasant Brook. 
Game we get this day. I dream of many caribou." 
There was joy in camp that morning. A general inspec- 
tion, for the hundredth time, of rifles and ammunition. 
Breakfast was a veritable feast. Belts were tightened, 
snowshoes fastened with more than ordinary care, and 
with springy steps the reconnoitering party directed their 
course toward Pleasant Brook. The morning walk is 
perfection; the air we breathe is nectar; mile after 
mile is passed in rapid succession. And here is Pleasant 
Brook; and here, yes here, are fresh tracks of a large 
herd of caribou, with, happily, a breeze springing up in the 
required direction. There is no lengthened lialt, every- 
