Sm*. 23, 1899 I 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Anothe Summei Visitor Case, 
Ferrisburch, Vt., Aug. 31.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: For several years past the shooting on our 
marshes has been spoiled by poachers long before the 
open season. The promising show of wood ducks and 
dusky or black ducks to be seen early in August failed 
to materialize on Sept. i, and the scattered few then 
remaining gave evidence, in their wariness and wild- 
ness, of frequent molestation. Gims were heard morn- 
ing and evening where there ought to be no shooting 
done ; the suspected parties were summer visitors on the . 
lake shore, but none of them were caught m the act. 
This summer promised a repetition of the old story; 
there were ducks and there was shooting, of which they 
were well known to be the object; but though boats 
were seen prowling morning and evening in the haunts 
of ducks, no one was caught in the act of shooting a 
duck, nor with one in possession. - 
Warden Ramsay, of Vergennes, was on the watch m 
the Little Otter Creek marshes; and one evening about 
the raidddle of August saw shots fired from a boat at 
two flying ducks, one of which fell. The boat was m a 
sort of cul de sac of what is known as the Broad Marsh, 
and Ramsay getting his own boat in a course to cut off 
the other's retreat, soon overhauled it and proceeded to 
S£cl^dl ill 
There was a muskrat and a few poor little sand- 
pipers in sight, a rail in a coat pocket, and a black duck 
concealed under the seat on which the Rev. Mr. Ogilvie 
sat. The other occupants were Dr. Furness and their 
boatman, M. Durfee. 
The profession^ gentlemen thus taken red-handed 
begged to be allowed to pay the fane and go their ways 
of peace and healing; but Warden Ramsay was in- 
exorable, and took them to Vergennes, where they were 
arraigned before a magistrate, pleaded guilty, paid the 
fine and costs and departed to their camp on Thompson s 
Point wiser but not entirely happier men, though the 
Rev. Mr. Ogilvie thanked God that he did not live in 
Vermont. To this we all say a hearty amen, for we 
do not desire as resident*, even for a little while, him 
nor any of his sort— persons who, in the guise of gentle- 
men, sneak out in close time to cheat honest sportsmen 
of their lawful rights. 
Mr Ogilvie took his punishment hard, and came out 
with a statement of the case in the Burlington Free 
Press, directly after the affair was made public, but it 
was a pretty lame excuse. It is noticeable that poach- 
ing clergymen when detected and punished take it with 
very ill grace, and no wonder, for it is a contemptibly 
mean business for an ordinary sinner to be caught in, 
and how much more so for a teacher of religion and 
morality to be engaged in. Awahsoose, 
A Maine Opening: to he Filled. 
. MatiawaMkeag^ Penobscot Co., Me,, Sept. 13.— Ed- 
itor Forest and Stream: After a silence of several years 
your quondam correspondent. Amicus, makes a bran new 
bow to brother Nimrods, and being in the State to which 
many eyes are turned and for which many hearts are 
yearning, I mav be able to write a few words of interest to 
the hordes of sportsmen who will visit the State during 
the three months beginning Oct. i. I have for a time 
been a resident of the State and am quite familiar with the 
hunting and fishing grounds. Indications point to a more 
successful game season than has been seen for several 
years. The game laws are about all that could be desired, 
and they are being enforced bv an efficient corps of war- 
dens, who show no favor to friend or foe, rich or poor. 
This is as it should be, and to-day we can truthfully boast 
of as fine a hunting and fishing country as can be found 
anywhere, while the facilities for getting here the low 
rates for hotel or camp accommodations as well as other 
necessities of the chase, are proving great drawing cards 
Probably the most frequented localities are to be jound 
along the line of the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad, and 
the record of game taken out every year is something sur- 
prising yet, in spite of this seemingly wholesale slaughter, 
the game is vearly increasing in point of numbers— to 
such an extent, in fact, that upon payment of a sma 
license fee citizens of the State have been allowed to kill 
one deer for food purposes during the present month. 
Right here in Mattawamkeag is one of the most ideal spots 
to be found in the whole region. Within five miles ot the 
village nestles among the hills one of the most picturesque 
little bodies of water imaginable—Lake Mattaceunk— 
where there are a number of well equipped camps. Un 
the shores of this lake there have been seen the past sum- 
mer a large number of deer and a few moose, ihe yil- 
lag can boast of first-class hotel accommodation. Being 
slightly to one side of the main wilderness, there are not 
so many sportsmen; and. as a natural consequence, those 
who visit this locaHty have a proportionately better chance 
of getting the full quota of game. Amicus extends a cor- 
dial invitation to brother knights of the rifle to come and 
see us, and will guarantee to a Hmited number of the era t 
a delightful locality, good camps, reliable guides and all 
the big game that the law allows. Amicus. 
they passed I fired both barrels of No. 8 bird shot into 
the mother bear at a range of about loft. She showed 
no evidence of being hit, and kept after the dog for 10 
or 12yds., when she turned abruptly into the woods. 
When the young bears were opposite the buggy they also 
turned into the woods. The dog turned and followed 
the old bear. At about 30yds. from the road, he stopped 
and began to bark. I jumped from the buggy to go 
to the dog, and when I was nearly to him, Mrs. Chahoon 
called for me to return, and when I got back she told me 
that another large bear had come into the road and stood 
on his hind legs and looked at the horse, while the 
horse stood on his hind legs and looked at the bear. As 
soon as the horse was quiet enough to hitch, Mrs. 
Chahoon and I went into the woods to try and drag the 
bear I had shot to the road, and while thus engaged Mr. 
Roberts came along with the stage and helped us to put 
the bear in the wagon. The ground where the bear 
was shot showed no blood or other evidence of being 
hit. Both charges struck behind the shoulder and were 
driven downward and part of them through the body. 
The bear showed no evidence of a struggle, and doubt- 
less fell perfectly dead where she lay when I got to her. 
In all. she must have run 50yds. after the shot. We had 
a pleasant little drive, and Mrs. Chahoon thinks bird 
shootinp- in the Adirondacks is not entirely without 
interest." 
Three Paragfaphs. 
I. 
Someone asked about breech-loading guns in Civil War 
times, the bullet of whose cartridge might be bitten off if 
so desired. Now among a lot of war relics I once saw a 
carbine (I believe) with a peculiar breech block. The 
front end rose up above the top of the barrel, the cartridge 
was shoved in base first, the block .shoved down, and it 
was ready for business, after capping. The specimen 
leaked fire at the joint in a way to Etstonish the natives; 
otberwisBj it looked serviceable. 
II. 
Have the painted tortoises of our Northeastern streams 
other enemies besides the destructive small boy? I never 
saw an empty shell. 
III. 
Old African hunters used to tell tales of the toothsome- 
ness of some antelopes— e. g., the eland. If true, is there 
any good reason why they may not be utilized as game 
park stock in the South? Frost is not unknown to them, 
J think. We need a new kind of beef. Isn't it possible 
that it is being allowed to follow the dodo unheeded? A 
dodo drumstick, now, would have made a piece de resist- 
ance at an ornithologist banquet. Why not save up a 
few eland steaks, then, for future generations? J. P. T. 
New England Partridges. 
Boston, Sept. 18.— The partridge gunners are out • in 
good numbers. The open season began Sept. 15, both m 
Maine and Massachusetts. Expectations have been great, 
particularly in Maine, and dozens of gunners from this 
section have gone there. Locations were selected and 
the dogs in training a week or two ago. Gunners from 
this way propose to go by themselves and without guides, 
in spite of the not-well-understood guide laws passed 
last winter. Local gunners were also out in the home 
woods on Friday and Saturday, and a few birds were 
taken, but not as many as expected. From several 
sections come complaints that the broods had been broken 
before the opening. Special. 
NextlSportsmen's Show. 
New York, Sept. is— Editor Forest and Stream: The 
sixth annual Sportsmen's Show, under the auspices of 
the National Sportsmen's Association, will open at Madi- 
son Square Garden, New York City, March i, 1900, and 
continue for seventeen days. New features and attrac- 
tions are being arranged, and will be submitted to the 
public at an early date. The coming Sportsmen's Show 
will undoubtedly be the best that has yet been brought 
together, and will cover every branch of sport. 
J. A. H. Dressel, Sec'y-Treas. 
Senator Chahoon's Bear. 
Senator Chahoon tells the following to the Platts- 
buT.^ Press: "On Saturday, Sept. 9, Mrs. Chahoon and 
I took a little drive in hopes of getting a couple ot 
partridges. We left our home m Ausable Forks m our 
buggv, with mv bird dog and .12-gauge shotgun. We 
Avere' driving through a swamp. Mrs. Chahoon held 
the reins, while I had the gun cocked ready for a quick 
shot, Avhen about 30yds. in front of us four bears came 
into the road and looked at us for an instant and 
started up the road from us. The dog made chase, ana 
was close to the bears as they entered the woods on the 
opposite side of the road. This was fun for the dog, and 
we sat laughing at his audacity, when from up the roacl^ 
we saw a procession of dog and. bear coming toward^ 
us, the dog leading with the old she bear in close pur- 
suit, and clearly gaining on the dog. The horse did 
not like this and started for home backward, but the 
buggy did not turn over, and as the bear and dog passed 
the buggj'j the dog had less than 6ft. 'of lead, and as 
"That reminds me." 
History Repeated. 
The allusion of Tarpon to an old book entitled "Tales 
of the Ocean" has awakened my recollections of 
the same, which I read more than fifty years ago, 
and which was one of the number composing the library of 
the old red school house at New Platz Landing, now 
Highland-on-the-Hudson. With us boys the book was a 
great favorite. It told of Kidd, Lafitte, Gibbs and other 
piratical characters, giving vivid accounts of the buc- 
caneers' cruelty at that period. It was very well illus- 
trated with wood cuts, representing pirates striking off 
the arm of an important prisoner, whose name 1 fail to 
remember; huddling captives in the bow of their vessel 
and blowing them into fragments with cannon ; shooting a 
prisoner out of a connon at the enemy ; a pirate ciptain m 
the rigging casting a lock of his hair into the air with an 
invocation to Satan to accept the offering and henceforth 
aid him in the accompHshment of his schemes of 
diabolism ; Capt. Kidd hung in irons, etc. 
Some of the accounts were of a humorous character. 
One I remember very distinctly, and when I read in the 
newspapers of Admiral Dewey doing the same thing which 
was related of a sea captain long before the Admiral's 
time I asked myself, without any attempt to belittle the 
famous Admiral, or bring in question his originality, 
whether he had not himself read that very book. Now 
what the sea captain did, and Dewey afterward, was this: 
Some sailor had thrown a big quid of tobacco on the 
deck, and the entire crew was ordered to remove it Avith 
heavy bjock-and-tackle, and with considerable trouble 
and ceremony. N. D; Elting. 
The Uncertain Bass* 
Varium et Semper Mulabile. 
What a shame it is that they have no anti-hounding 
law in France. If they had poor Dreyfus might have had 
what I believe is technically known as a "look in.' 
However, the case of "me frien' Alf," as Mr. Dooley 
doubtless designates the unfortunate Frenchman, has es- 
tablished the fact that in a Gallic court of justice (?) it 
don't make much difference when and how you offer your 
testimony, and upon this precedent I proceed to subinit 
3 little in support of the claim of one Shanganoss, who, 
many months agone, delivered himself in the columns of 
Forest and' Strkam of some most truthful statements 
aneni our old friend the black bass. 
M. dolomieu, according to Shanganoss, is an uncertain 
critter, whose present appetite for feather hooks or the 
tempting minnow may not be prognosed according to 
any precedent. , • . , 
Shanganoss is right. The day may be tair, the water • 
just right, the lures enticing and the tackle of the best, 
but— no bass. Yesterday, the prototype of to-day, they 
took furiously; but to-day, alack, they will turn up their 
noses at every inducement one may offer. 
Why is it? I don't pretend to explain. I don t know. 
Nor does anybody. 
Twenty years ago I knew all there was to know about 
bass fishing. To-day I know absolutely nothing, and 
readily admit the fact. The Dutchman who said "that so 
long vat you lifs so more you findts py gosh owd had 
never followed a bass river, or he would have been forced 
to modify his statement. 
Your only safe premise as you load an after breaktast 
pipe preparatory to starting for a day on the river is that 
it is the unexpected which is goin^ to happen. Indeed, it 
is generally when the prospects are brightest and the 
angler's hopes highest that his thud is the loudest as he 
falls into the slough of disappointment over the blankness 
of a day which promised so fair. 
Once in a long, long time, however, whde the same 
general rule holds good, the method of its application by 
our finny adversaries is along diametrically opposite lines. 
Everything may seem to be against you, and yet, as the 
country papers always say, in speaking of some rural fes- 
tivity, "a good time is had." One day in particular I 
recall' when our expectation was nil, and our sorrow was 
turned into ioy, and this is how it happened: 
The Iron Chancellor, the General Manager and I were 
engaged in deep consultation upon the hotel porch. 
The Iron Chancellor, so called because of his resem- 
blance to the great German, his talents and his tenacity of 
purpose, is a lawyer of prominence Avith a shocking fishing 
wardrobe. The General Manager (setat. 13) is so known 
because of his thorough insight into the affairs of the 
great through line of railroad on which he resides. I am 
just the General Manager's daddy. 
It was a crisp, cool Sabbath morn in late September. 
The dav was exquisite, the air superb, but our hearts were . 
filled with gloom because the morrow was to be our last 
day on the river, and we had koped for a propitious one, 
so that we might put a fitting climax to a most success- 
ful fishing trip. But. alas for human hopes, Saturday had 
honored us with a heavy rain, which, up above the 'York 
State line, had well nigh attained to the dignity of a cloud- 
burst, and our trusty boatman (have you ever noticed how 
boatmen and guides are always "trusty"?) had just come 
up from the boat landing to tell us, with tears in his eyes, 
that "She was up a foot, still a-raisin', and runnin' moss 
'n' leaves." A sorry outlook, this, on a stream where, as 
a rule, a 2in. rise stops every bass from biting as cer- 
tainly as would his own decease. 
So with heavy hearts we deliberated on the advisability 
of driving in twelve miles to a small lake and spending the 
night and our last day there. 
Then out spake the Iron Chancellor: "Darned if I do. 
The last time we were in at the lake I was led by the rnos- 
quitoes, the infamous grub and the fiendish coffee into 
an immutable resolve never to go there again. Let's take 
a good lunch and a bottle of claret and go up the river 
anyhow. We'll have the run down the rapids, the beau- 
tiful scenery, and. I know, lots of fun, though as far as the 
fishing is concerned, we might just as well leave our rods 
and tackle at home." 
The prospect of running the rapids in flood and unlim- 
ited comestibles proved too much for the General Man- 
ager, and he voted "Aye," so there would have been a 
clear majority against me. even if I had cared to conduct 
a minority campaign, which I didn't, as the run down ten 
miles of the most beautiful river in the world appeals to 
me even more strongly now than when I first took it 
twenty years ago. Besides which, the Chancellor's re- 
marks about the provender at the lake, were, if anything, 
too mild. 
So it was arranged that. Frank should meet us at Van 
Camp's Rock, ten miles up river, at 7:30 o'clock the next 
morning with the boat, and, pro forma, a can of live bait. 
Bright and early we started on Monday morning. Tom 
and Jerry, the two big upstanding bays, took our buck-, 
board along at a gait which put the ten miles of beautiful 
river road behind us long before we had wearied of the 
exquisite outlook across the valley to the mountains just 
beginning to assume their bright autumnal raiment, and 
almost before we knew it we were at the trysting place. 
Frank was there before us, and shook his head gloomily 
as we appeared. "Up 2ft., at least," he said, "and runnin' 
full o 'trash." ^ 
We got out the rods, grubs and camera, stowed them 
snugly aboard the boat, and then dropped down a short 
rift into a big eddy, a famous place and the scene of many' 
an exciting conflict, in which either the Chancellor or I 
had been at the butt end of the rod and an angry, leaping 
bass at the end of the delicate line and leader. 
"Long we fished with our nicest art. 
But there came not a nibble to gladden the heart," 
so we landed, took a lot of photographs, looked for fos- 
sils along the river bank, and then had lunch. 
Now, whether it was inspiration or a mere lucid inter- 
val I do not know, but Avith no special theory in my mind 
I suggested -over the first after-luncheon- pipe that we 
