r. 28, 18^. ]i 
FOREST AND StRfiAM. 
848 
Adirondack Deer Hounding. 
>r Forest and Stream: 
is generally admitted that the law which forbids the 
>f dogs in hunting deer has been and is nnpopnlar 
ost parts of the Adirondacks. 
natives m the central and eastern portion of this 
a believe in the use of dogs, and liked the old law- 
stood until three years ago, except that many were 
sed to the early opening of the season, and it was 
r generally believed that a limited hunting season in 
ber would be better both for the hunters and for the 
ere was consequently a strong public sentunent 
1st the law which first came into force three years 
jrohibiting hounding. It was contrary to all ideals 
mie rule, for it enforced a principle antagonistic to 
convictions of nine out of every ten men 
lived and hunted in the Adirondacks, and 
over it entailed hardship and pecuniary loss 
many of the backwoods settlers, who were 
ved of the means of securing a very desirable 
on of their food supply, and who had ten, twenty or 
fifty dollars of their capital invested in dogs which 
the passage of the law lost all commercial valuation. 
1 the first the law was not enforced. The game pro- 
rs realized the hardships which a thorough and ej- 
e execution of their powers would entail, and in 
eases it was more than their positions were worth 
ick up against public sentiment and antagonize the 
nunitj"" in whiph they lived by a strict enforcement of 
ext- 
e protectors themselves w^ere not apt to he in sym- 
r with an innovation which made illegal the method 
.mting which had been pursued as far back as the 
;t inhabitant could renicmber, and the necessity of 
li innovation was by no means apparent, and it is 
wonder that the non-hounding clause in the law 
es only a perfunctory and superficial attention, 
t it be noted that what has been said and what is to 
w has no bearing on the merits of the law. 
rsonally, the writer believes that the time has come 
e Adirondacks, as it has elsewhere, when such a law- 
it only admirable, but necessary for the continuance 
xy satisfactory game supply; 
:blic sentiment in the Adirondacks is slowly but 
y coming around in favor of the law. Particularly 
le outskirts of the woods, where there are witnesses 
very act of hounding who may, through personal 
ty, cause the bounder to suf¥er, the deer have in- 
sed, and they are found to-dfiy in places where they 
not been seen for ten or fifteen years. There could 
0 stronger argument in favor of the law. With public 
ment aroused by so favorable an object lesson, it 
d seem the protectors' golden opportunity to step in 
by a sharp, vigorcms campaign clinch the matter and 
ftually put an end to general hounding. Early in the 
on there was reason to believe that such a policy 
Id be maugurated. To-day, however, as far as his ob- 
ation goes, the writer is convinced that little or noth- 
has been done to put the law on a proper basis of 
rcement. Apparently the law will continue as here- 
re to be a dead letter throughout a large part of the 
;ing country. The following facts apply particularly 
issex county and its protector, Fletcher Beede, of 
ne Valley. 
"r. Beede has a large territory to look after. Essex 
an area of 1,800 square miles. Deer are found over a 
e portion of the county, and the western side con- 
s the roughest mountain area in the State. Beede's, 
h is a postoffice at the head of Keenc Valley, is, how- 
, at the geographical center of the region, and for the 
; of not appearing to be unfair to Mr. Beede 1 shall 
cite cases where the law is being violated within a 
short distance of his home. 
certain outsider whose name can be given if required 
icipated in a hounding expedition within three miles 
Jame Protector Beede's home, guided by a man who 
said to be a deputy for Mr. Beede. The outsider, 
had prevloushr hounded in the Adirondacks, was un- 
re that the law had been changed, and wrote to the 
1p to nrocure dogs and arrange for the hunt. The 
sider had only a day for the trip, and was horrified 
:n back in the' woods to learn that the law was being 
ated. The guide, who supposed all along the out- 
T knew andVas intentionally evading the law. tried 
ssure the outsider by saying that there was no danger 
rrest, as he was the man who made arrests and no one 
would trouble them. The hunt was terminated then 
there, however, and the guide did not receive his ex- 
ted bonus. 
he hounding in Keene Valley itself was never good. 
1 nearest free territory of much consequence to Pro- 
^ot Beede's home is in the neighborhood of North 
dson, which is about half a day's drive to the south- 
d over a well traveled road. At this point J am of 
opinion that a protector who had the sand to enforce 
law could arrest twenty-five men any Sunday with 
icient evidence to secure their conviction, and not 
k over two miles in making the arrests or be at any 
e more than a quarter 01 a mile distant from his buggy, 
other days of the week he would find men breaking 
law, but more are oUt on Sunday, and they are bolder 
'ausc of the confidence which numbers give, 
)a Sundav. Oct. 8, three deer were killed by hounding 
hin a radius of three-quarters of a mile' of the old 
:lge across the Schroon River, just below the old Sharpe 
cc. There were eight hounds at the old Sharpe place 
t day. One deer was killed on Lindsay Brook, a short 
tai-'co from the main road, one on the main river on 
George Shaw place, and one on West Mill Brook, 
ir Mrs. McAuIey's. Much of the venison is sold. Early 
the season venison brought fancy prices; now it can 
bought cheaper than beef. Some of it is as cheap as 
•ents a pound. There are two organized sets of men 
0 do the hunting. If the hounding is to be stopped 
se men must be taught a sharp lesson-. Among ^em- 
ves they say Protector Beede is afraid to go off the 
iten road to" make ati arrest. They know he is capable 
of doing it, fCir Protector Beede has high abilities as a 
Avoodsman, and he knows all about hounding and just 
where to go to get his men. 
Last November I camped in an old lumber camp three 
miles up West Mill Brook. The hounds were running 
every day and frequently jumped the deer I was .still- 
hunting. At the "Roll Bank" and other stands were a 
full quota of watchers. It was known that my senti- 
Oient was in favor of upholding the law. The cabin which 
'I occupied and other buildings and the buildings at two 
other camps were burned between that time and the 
present hunting season. Apparently I was persona non 
grata. 
My sympathy is and always has been with the native 
hunters, for though I think the present law is best for the 
game, I am a believer in home rule, and I think the na- 
tives should have been consulted in making their own 
laws. 
The hounds and shooting can be heard from the road, 
and every one knows that the hounding law is practically 
a dead letter. When 1 came out with a small buck killed 
as the law provides I passed a fur buyer in the outskirts 
of Elizabcthtown (the county seat) bargaining with a 
farmer for some coon skinf and several moth-eaten deer 
hides. I (^rew up and askec'. him what he would give for a 
deer skin. 
"Where's your hide?" said the man. 
"In the bottom of the wagon on the deer," I repfled. 
One of the bystanders asked when and how the deer 
was secured, and on my replying that he was killed still- 
hunting there was a general laugh. 
"Yes, you'd say so," said the man who had the skins 
for sale; " we all understand about that. Yesterday they 
ran a nice buck across my place with a couple of hounds, 
and to-day the butcher is peddling his meat. The hounds 
had nothing to do with it, though. It's against the law 
to hound." 
And again the laugh went round. It did not require a 
diagram to explain the joke. The Yankee has an elastic 
conscience wiiere game laws arc concerned, and so long 
as he doesn't get caught illegal hounding is a subject for 
jest. I knew better than to attempt to prove that I had 
stili-hunted my deer, and I joined in the laugh. Ten years 
ago, when they allowed still-hunting, before the hounding 
season coinmenced, I killed a deer when the woods were 
dry and noisy and the leaves still on the trees preventing 
one seeing game at any distance. It was taken for granted 
that dogs were used, and I got no sympathy trying to 
prove that I had killed it fairly and squarely as the law 
provides, and there was a tendency to set me down for 
a combination of Puritan and hypocrite. 
I could give other instances of hounding at North 
H.udS(>n and around Elizabcthtown, but let the above suf- 
fice. At Meigsville and in parts of Lewis there is sys- 
tematic hounding at the present time, and the further one 
gets back in the woods the less the law is observed. 
At the Sportsmen's Exposition in New York in March 
the Saranac guides stated that hounding began in parts 
of their territory in July and continued until December. 
It is not quite as bad as this in Essex county, and though 
some hounding has been done during the summer in the 
localities mentioned, general hounding did not begin un- 
til very recently. Decisive action now would put an end 
to it. Game Protector Beede is a man whose training 
and aptitude as a woodsman well fit hiin to be the instru- 
ment. He has been lenient long enough, and public senti- 
ment will back him in carrying out the law he has sworn 
to enforce; but if he does not enforce it it is high time 
he was convicted of being a traitor to his trust. 
J. B. BURNHAM. 
A Camp Hunt in Texas. 
November will be a month bright with delightful 
memories to a party of nine Texas sportsmen as long as 
"fond recollection" does her office. Yes; there were nine 
of us, besides the colored contingent — Sam Johnson, a 
first-class cook, and tw-o chore boys. Sam we knew quite 
well, having had him with us on three camp hunts before 
this one. His face was as black as Erebus or ebony, while 
his teeth and eyes were as white as milk. When Sam 
wished to express surprise, Avonder, joy or almost any 
deep or sudden feeling, he did so by rolling up those 
big white eyes. At such times they resembled goose 
eggs immersed in a bucket of tar. Simp and Joe were 
about the color of a Texas saddle, or an Irish potato with 
the peel on. Tliey fed and otherwise attended the horses, 
brought wood and Avater, helped Sam about the cooking, 
and in fact Avere expected to "be ready for every good 
Avord and work," as our minister would say. They were 
both hungry and lazy from the begfinning to the end of 
the hunt. I have seen both Simp and Joe eat until they 
could contain no more, but they said it still tasted good, 
and they ceased only from lack of room. They Avere \'ery 
respectful in their bearing toward Sam, never failing to 
address him as "Mr. Johnsing." This they did for more 
reasons than one. He had charge of the commissary de- 
partment as Avell as the sutler's stores. 
Our camp was pitched on the Trinity RiA^er — or rather 
on the shore of a beautiful lake of clear, fresh Avater 
"down in the Trinity bottoms." The solitude of this 
almost ideal camping place was disturbed only by the 
cry of the laughing oavI, the hoAvl of the timber Avolf, or 
angr}' spitting of lynxes in their quarrels over their 
quarry — or something else. Yes: I had nearly forgotten 
the noises (I cannot describe them) made by raccoons, 
loons and other amphibious and aquatic creatures that 
helped to make night Aveird and ghostly to the noAnce. All 
our party, hoAveA-er, had grown accustomed to these 
things, and gave them no more thought than to the 
cricket on the hearth at home — i. e.. all the Avhite folks. 
Simp and Joe Avere very nervous for a night or two, and 
the Doctor had them frightened almost to death the fir.st 
night in camp, telling them all sorts of unconscionable 
yaVns, about our camp being right on the spot where a 
Avhole dozen horse thieves had been lynched years ago 
by the rangers, and that those strange noises were made 
by their unhappy spirits. After the duties of the first 
evening in camp" were done, and the three darkies were 
gathered in the tent set apart for their use, I overheard 
Sam pacifying their minds and telling them that the Doc- 
tor '"Avas jess a-foolin' Avid ye all, fur dem noises ain't nn 
speerits, but jess dem lafiin' oavIs and sich A^armints as dat. 
You niggers are de biggest fools I ever hearn on not to 
see dat de Doctor was jess a kyarin on to See you niggers 
look scairn." 
We reached the lake about 4 o'clock Monday afternoon, 
and proceeded as soon as possible to spy out the land. 
Leaving the darkies to erect the tents, get supper and do 
such other duties as the occasion demanded, we tied up all 
the dogs but three old ones, which Ave knew Avould find 
their Avay back to camp after a chase, and Avith eager and 
hopeful hearts we laid out the plans for the first drive for 
a deer. The Doctor was unanimously elected "Captain of 
the Hunt" for the entire trip, and he decided that the drive 
north of the lake be made that afternoon. Ed B, and the 
Doctor w^ere to take their stands at the north end of thf 
lake; Jno. G. and Uncle Peter Avere to take positions on 
the slough to the east of the drive ; Bob and Conrad were 
to take their stands on an old tie-cutter's road on the 
north ; Caldwell and Perry were to see to it that no deer 
escaped on the west, and Uncle Jerry was to take the dogs 
Hoopie, Blue Buck and Old Belle and make the drive. 
All this planning was executed Avhile horses were being- 
saddled, shells stowed in pockets, etc., and in twenty 
minutes after we arrived at the camping place we were 
making for ottr respective places on the drive. Uncle Jerry 
Avas so impatient to begin driving that he did not give the 
boys time to reach their stands before he had the dogs 
into the thickets, Avhere in a fcAV minutes they .struck a 
running- trail, and in a short time they had run our first 
deer into the river, no one being lucky enough to get a 
shot. Old Belle and Blue Buck quit the chase at the 
river and came to Uncle Jerry's horn. They were soon in 
full cry after a doe and tAvo faAvns, which, instead of run- 
ning off straightaway, doubled and tacked and twisted 
about in the thickets until Uncle Jerry got a shot and 
killed one of the fawns ; and Old Belle brought the doe to 
the Doctor, Avho tumbled her over in nice style. As it Ava,s 
now getting dark, horns were blown and responded to by 
others, until the entire party had gotten together, and all 
set out for camp, not more than half a mile away. 
Sam soon had the faAvn dressed and a goodly portion of 
it cooking for supper. We had shot enough squirrels on 
our way down to feed tAvice the number composing our 
party, and what Avith venison, squirrel, canned goods and 
the proA'isions brought from our homes, we had a supper 
good enough for kings. 
As Ave sat by our camp-fire telling stories, smoking and 
joking, recounting experiences of former camp hunts, 
etc., the Doctor playing upon the superstitious fears of 
the darkies, we were saluted by the shrill clarion-like notes 
that came to us from away up the river from the throat of 
old Hoopie, bringing the deer back that he had followed 
since the first "jurnp" that afternoon. We all rose to our 
feet and listened. Nearer and nearer he came, uttering as 
regularly as the ticking of a clock that shrill note that 
seemed to set every laughing owl for miles around to 
practicing all sorts of fiendish cachinations. When the 
faithful old hound reached a point opposite our camp, 
some of us blcAv horns, some called, and somebody fired a 
gun. The old fellow understood the signals and was soon 
whining and faAvning about us round the fire, seeming to 
to say: "I did my best. I stuck to him until you called me 
off Why didn't you kill him? I am hungry. Where's my 
supper?" Old Belle and Blue Buck got up from where 
they were lying near the fire and went up to him and in 
dog dialect told him, I presume, of the success of the 
di'ive after he left us. I say I presume they told him, for 
after they had gone up to him, rubbed noses, sniffed a 
little and Avagged heads and tails a few seconds, Hoopie 
walked straight over to Avhere the doe was lying on the 
ground, smelled it over a moment, walked back to tiie 
fire, and looked at us inquiringly as much as to say 
"Whose shot did it?" then walked over to Sam to receive 
his supper. It isn't every old hunter even who can go to 
sleep early the first night in camp. The anticipations of 
to-morroAV, the novelty of the situation and other things 
combined to make one somewhat Avakeftil. That first 
night, or more than half of it at least, Avas spent in con- 
A'ersation, more or less fragmentary and disjointed, some 
admonishing the more Avakeful and talkative of the late- 
ness of the hour, and the necessity of early rising in the 
morning; and then themselves becoming interested in 
some joke or story they Avould become thoroughly aroused 
and join in the talk until admonished in their turn of 
the lateness of the hour and the necessity for an early 
start in the morning, etc., etc. Well, if you have ever been 
on a camp-htmt you know hoAv it is yourself. Finally, 
the last man to "hush up" finished his remarks, and sleep 
came to "knit up the raveled sleeve" of many a hunter's 
yarn and refresh us for exciting experiences on the mor- 
roAV. I suspect that if any dreaming Avas done by any of 
our party that night, dogs and guns and deer and horns 
each played some part in the fabrication of the visions. 
At the' first peep of day Sam was calling "Breakfast! 
Breakfast!" and in an incredibly short time nine hungry 
hunters with tin plates filled Avith venison steaks, fried 
squirrels and other .sukstantial appeasements of appetite 
Avcre eating as voraciou.sly as if they Avere half-starved. 
The air Avas frosty, the sky clear and no wind blowing. 
Sitting by our camp table busy like the rest with the 
breakfast' before me, I counted five squirrels in sight, 
while dozens and scores were barking and chattering in 
the woods around us. I verily believe that one could have 
killed several hundreds of them Avithin a half mile of our 
camp. We were in the midst, or rather our lake is in the 
midst, of a pecan grove of many acres, and the nuts were 
ripe and very abundant. The squirrels had evidently con- 
gregated here because of the abundance of their faA'orite 
food. 
The ineal dispatched, the Doctor sounded the call to 
horse. Selecting six of our seA^enteen dogs for the day's 
use, and rehearsing the Captain's plan for the mornings 
drive that all might thoroughly understand it, yve set 
forth for the dav's sport. Hoav exhilarating the crisp and 
balmy air! There was just enough of the frosty feel to 
make the blood tingle and the pulse thrill. My stand that 
morning Avas on a knoll at the edge of the bottom some- 
thing like a luile from camp. This knoll, or ridge, was a 
faA-orite runwav for deer driven from the thickets of the 
river bottom, and making for the dense thickets of a creek 
bottom tAvo miles north of our camp. Seated on a chunk 
of dead wood, itiv back against a large oak tree, the 
Avoods all around me as still as a tomb save for the chat- 
tering of sfjuirrels and the scratching in the leaves of an 
occasional thrush, no wind bloAving, T heard for half an 
hour the finest chase it has ever been my privilege to en- 
