Oct. 21, iSgc^.J 
111 size, wooded, and all forming one o£ the prettiest 
ponds in Maine. We only saw five deer during our tour 
through the islands, and they were all does, and we re- 
tired to our cabin, had supper and retired to a bed of fresh 
boughs, surpassing in exquisite perfume any of the arti- 
hcial odors yet devised by the skill of mankind. 
Monday morning I commenced the hunt and was de- 
termmed to get a fine head or not to shoot at deer at 
all. The day was clear and warm, and excepting that the 
woods were very dry, from a continued warm term, noth- 
ing but a little rain could be desired. Deer seemed very 
plenty; they were everywhere, and we had seen sixteen 
before noon; but all of them were does or fawns or verv 
small bucks. While there is an abundance of deer to be 
seen in the water feeding, it is not so easv to find a large 
buck with a good head. The old bucks are very shy and 
keep well up on the hardwood ridges and are very hard to 
approach near enough to get a good shot; thev are contin- 
POnnsT AND STREAM. 
tough proposition, but I decided to try for them. I had 
noticed they generally went near the sheltered shores, so 
1 hunted around after them quite a little and shot several 
times, saw the bullets make the spray and even the 
feathers fly; but the result was a total failure to kill any. 
The clouds cleared away again and we tried for more 
photographs again. It seemed easy to get them; but the 
good results are difficult. The shaking of a camera in the 
canoe or on the shore may spoil them; the focus may be 
wrong; ofttimes the distance is too great; or the sun may 
not be right. However, I succeeded in getting eight good 
photographs of deer and four of moose. We noticed 
some fox sign on a trail, and hunted them for some time; 
but these sly creatures are hard to approach in the woods 
and our efforts to find them resulted in failure. 
We had now spent twelve days at the headwaters of the 
Aroostook. I had got one handsome trophy, and my 
wish was to get bear or fox on my way down the river. 
Summer Sounds. 
Lay Springs, Ala., lies on the eastern s'lope of Look- 
out Mountain. From its situation it rather resembles an 
inverted punch bowl dropped between two well foliaged 
ridges. On this bowl a merry company of campers gath- 
ered during the last days of July. The first sight of the 
tents from a hill through a long shaded vista was cheer- 
ing; and then to be soon about stretching another tent 
all one's own, and for rain or shine, for burned corn- 
bread and spilled water 'in the fire, or for delicious hoe 
cakes and grilled bacon — this gave a zestful first impres- 
sion. 
Before the initiatory supper was done a few of the more 
cheerfully disposed stars came out and blinked hatween 
swift rolling clouds until the dishes were washed and 
stowed away. Then, after having groped through that 
dark, laurel-hung, dangerous looking path to the chaly- 
SALMON POOL — ^AROOSTOOK BIVEK. 
Photo by Wm. Simpson. 
ually on the alert. I was pretty tired and returned to the 
log cabin to rest and lunch. The invigorating air soon 
stimulates one, and the charm of woods life is found in 
its freedom and vigorous open-air life man leads when 
hunting or fishing. After a camp-made meal of good 
biscuit, fried bacon and hot coffee, we were refreshed and 
ready to continue our hunt. As I was removing the stains 
of our midday meal I saw a large deer step out of some 
brush, and stalking up to within looyds. or so, fired at him 
as he stood facing me with his head up in that graceful 
pose that is natural to a buck deer. The bullet, that was 
shot from a Savage repeating rifle, entered where the 
neck joins the shoulder, breaking the second rib about 
the middle and tearing his lungs in shreds. The killing 
power of this small-bore nitro powder rifle is terrific. 
When we dressed him we found his body was a mass of 
blood. Although I have killed thirty-five or forty deer, I 
never shot one with such tgrrible effect. This was the 
largest deer I have ever killed, or that I had ever seen. 
I shot one at Harvey Bonney's camps in the Adirondacks 
that weighed 204lbs. ; but we believe this one to be larger. 
Two men were unable to lift him, and as he fell in fallen 
timber we had to drag him about twenty paces, so we 
could dress him, after which we prepared the head for the 
taxidermist. It is one of the most perfect symmetry, with 
twelve points, six on each side, with points exactly alike 
in form and feature, with the curves of both antlers pre- 
cisely alike. He had shed the red coat, except a few long 
hairs, and the hair of the gray coat was short and fine 
and made a very desirable specimen. I was naturally 
well pleased with the success. We had venison tenderloin 
fried for supper. , The frying-pan comes so handy in the 
woods that almost an3^thing that requires cooking is gen- 
erally fried. Sometimes we would get a suitable fire and 
get a green wet twig and make the branches into a fork 
to broil fish or venison; but I rarely have found the 
change of cooking worth the extra trouble, and a wood 
fire is not generallj'- suitable for broiling. 
After supper we sat around the fire a while and then re- 
tired to our bed of boughs, well satisfiged with^the suc- 
cess of our day's sport. We were up early the following 
morning, carried all the venison we could over the trail 
to the home camps at Millnockett Lake, and hung the re- 
mainder pretty high up for safety, and returned the fol- 
lowing day for the parts we had left. It is no easy task 
to carry a" big fat deer, even when quartered, over a rough 
trail through the woods. We concluded to fish and make 
' photographs of moose and deer for a few days, which 
we did. The weather then became cloudy, and we went 
cut and hunted for partridges. They were not very plen- 
tiful, but while the dry season made it hard to approach 
deer in the woods, the noise we made traveling in the 
dry leaves and twigs caused the birds to move about and 
made it easy to find them, from their rustling the leaves. 
One can hear a very little sound in the stillness of the 
, woods. On our return home from partridge shooting 
' we met a young miss and her father, who with two guides 
I had been hunting and fishing. The young lady said she 
I had shot a large deer, and held in her hand a very large 
owl she had shot about an hour before we met them. 
We had all the venison we required, and it was easy to 
get all the fish we wished. We had been shooting par- 
tridges for several days. The weather had not cleared off 
I bright enough for getting photographs. It was too early 
I to kill moose legall}^ and we were a little undecided what to 
dto, when presently I heard a loon, and looking overhead 
I saw it flying high up in the air. Shooting loons is a 
VOYAGEURS IN THE AROOSTOOK. 
Photo by Wm. Simpson. 
We made a speedy start after breakfast and went down 
stream, stopping long enough to get six nice trout, frying- 
pan size. I saw a large osprey flying, and after shooting 
four times I succeeded in breaking his wing with a ball 
from my rifle. It was a very large specimen, and I sent 
it to the taxidermist, which with a handsome 5lb. brook 
trout made quite a list, and which I expect wilf be added 
to others I have already in my home. 
Brother sportsmen, there is a lot of benefit from a few 
weeks spent in the mountains in recreation; and it is some 
satisfaction to have a few trophies, fairly hunted, to call 
up the memories of these pleasant trips. I know of no 
better woodsman in Maine, or hunting companion, than 
Frank House or George Cole. They are good natured, 
good company, patient and tireless, obliging and thought- 
THE OSPREY S NEST. 
Photo by Wm. Simpson. 
ful. I have hunted, fished, trailed and camped with them, 
and if you wish to know a man clear thr'ough and through, 
camp with him in the woods for two weeks. One of the 
chief attractions of these mountains and wooded ridges is 
the true democratic mode of life. Here every man stands 
for what he really is, and here the doctrine of simplicity 
and truth is common practice. 
William Simpson. 
New Yokk. 
NOTICE. 
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the city. This entails a collection expense on those who receive 
such checks. Our patrons are requested, therefore, in making 
their remittances to send postal or exprcM , money order, postage 
stamps, or check or draft on a N-ht York cityrbaah- or other New 
York cvurent fund*. 
beate spring and returned, it began to rain; slowly, 
monotonously, as though raining for an effect of lone- 
someness. This was heightened as I sat in the dim rays 
of my little photographic lamp, shining but from one 
side, and not a sound except the screaming scheech owl 
from the dell below and the slow patter on the canvas. 
It is very good to wake up in the woods. This is usu- 
ally very early, and proceeds from the first notes of the 
birds. Here it is at this season the cardinal whose flutnigs 
open the chorus. His is the reveille call, and he enjoys 
the distinction as though a paid piper of the king. Once 
or twice I heard at least four males in envious emulation. 
The summer tanager has closed his singing season, but 
can soon be heard in scolding monosyllables; then the 
wood pewee utters his salutation; the preacher vireo be- 
gins his continuous prosing sermon of the day, and I fall 
back on my cot awhile when the chickadee drops into his 
long-noted plaintive sighing. ' ^ 
After breakfast Ring and I go for squirrels in the " 
ridges. The long walk through odorous woods, fresh 
and still, broken, perhaps, by a sight of the shy day 
flower (Comnielina virginica), the rich downy foxglove 
or the Indian pipe, thrusting its ghost-like presence upon 
me in some of the deeper shadows — this is always the 
greater pleasure. If a squirrel or two can be bagged it 
helps my prospects for dinner, for all kinds of primitive 
and delightful exchanges obtain in our little community 
and a young squirrel from me to my pleasant friends next 
door means fried chicken, baked apple and home-made 
light-bread for my board. This is literal, indeed, for my 
dining table consists of two stakes driven into the ground 
near the fire and a board laid across. 
When I give presents of apple sauce or rice cakes, hy- 
drangea leaves, like the vine leaf of Continental al fresco 
dinners, make admirable substitutes for china and delft 
ware. 
To coOk one's supper at nightfall and see the stars come 
out; to get out of butter and scour the neighborhood in'- 
search of some; to buy roasting ears and then have your 
money threateningly returned to you because of moun- 
tain hospitality; to have it rain before the dinner fire is 
made and wet all the wood in the country — are not such 
pleasures worth three times the price of board at a re- 
spectable hotel or at the deceiving farmhouse where 
lodgers are held in durance to the tyranny of "fresh eggs 
and Jersey butter"? I cannot refrain from some further 
mention of my adopted companion, ever faithful Ring. 
A cross between pointer and bulldog, he combined both 
the elements of affection and persistence. Soon divining 
my affinity for dogs he left his old master entirely and 
professed unqualified and constant allegiance to me. Not 
demonstrative or fawning, it w^s touching to see his rev- 
erent devotion as he followed me all day and lay at my 
tent door all night. 
But such elemental virtue as prevailed in our colony 
could not last always. It is one of the sad fjfcts of exist- 
ence that no spot of the world is free from the evils which 
haunt humanity. It is said that gossip sometimes came 
into our camp and even sat about the fires under the 
heavens, but she was restless and neiwous in the open air 
and would soon huriy back to the chimney corners of civ- 
ilization. Then again, eatable things placed in our cold 
storage boxes at the spring began to mysteriously disap- 
pear. Otir camp "nigger" was laid under grave .suspicion, 
and a young squirrel which had been treasured through a 
meal or so being taken at last brought down condign pun- 
ishment on his head. He was expelled, but, like the cat, 
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