Nov. 25. 1899.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
4^7 
long silver-tipped hair showing above all, which gave 
him the appearance of a silvertip. As moose go he had 
an exceptionally pretty head. The guides estimated that 
he was four or live years of age, and above the average 
size; larger ones are frequently killed, however. Having 
bagged our game, we dressed and hung up the meat, and 
returned well pleased with the day's sport, to our lake 
camp. The next day was spent by the guides in bringing 
down the meat, salting the hide and getting ready for our 
homeward journey, which was accomplished during the 
next two days without incident worthy of mention. 
And now a word about the guides, game and country. 
Thomas Canning, of New Grafton, I found moose 
caller, hunter, trapper and guide. Remember there were 
only four calls, consuming less than one-half hour, late 
in the season (Oct. 23), and a dead moose. Can the 
record be beaten? Mr. A. D. Thomas, Milford. Annapolis 
county, is an experienced guide, hunter and fisherman. 
While he makes no claim as an expert caller, yet he imi- 
i-ates Tom very closely. His life has been spent in this 
locality, and he knows just what, when and how to do 
the proper thing at the right moment; and for getting up 
a camp meal, well, his "moose stew" is unequaled, es- 
pecially if your clothing is a fit before dinner. The two, 
Thomas and Canning, made a pair hard to beat. 
Annapolis and Queens counties are ideal for moose, 
caribou, deer and other game, such as bear, wildcat, 
rufifed grouse, etc. The absence of deer at the present 
time is accounted for from the fact that no money is 
spent by the Government to increase the game, as in- 
stanced by the liberation of only thirteen deer several 
years ago. They are to be seen, but with the present 
laws they will soon be as numerous as in Maine. Cari- 
bou are numerous, but one must go back to the Blue 
Mountains to find them in any numbers. The fee 
charged for a shooting permit seems large, but when 
one considers that he is practically sure of his game, 
permit good for one year, cost of food and transportation 
very much less than elsewhere, getting to and from the 
game very much easier and quicker, this sinks into in- 
significance. The people are a cordial and hospitable 
class, and wilV do all in their power to make j'our stay 
pleasant and profitable. The guides charge $2 per day 
and furnish their own canoe aiid get to and from and at 
the game with all possible dispatch. The lakes in this 
region are ideal fishing spots, full of various kinds of fish. 
Ruffed grouse have been protected by law for a number 
-of j'ears, and have become so numerous that one could 
ahnost knock them over with a stick in places. The law 
is off Oct. I, 1900. Large flocks of ducks frequent the 
different ponds, and in fact it seemed like a sportsman's 
paradise. 
I n the future, as I look upon my trophies here in my 
"den." I cannot but feel with some just pride that I 
brought him down at a good distance with the little Win- 
chester .30-30 soft-nosed bullet in a province very little 
written about or known by American sportsmen. 
William L. Roberts. 
Springfield, Mass. 
In the North Woods. 
lidilor Forest and Stream: 
.The condition of affairs in the northeastern part of the 
Adirondacks. of which Mr. Burnham has told, and that 
here in the northern part of Herkimer county are very 
similar so far as game is concerned. In both regions 
the men who should be protecting the deer are not doing 
it. The deerhounds are loose and the runwaj's manned. 
Btit the worst is yet to be told. 
The other evening I attended a dance in the hall at 
Ohio City. There was a notable gathering of woods- 
men present. Hy Waite, the man who passes for the 
protector of game hereabouts, was there, and while Hy 
was going through the figures of a square dance at the 
head of a set I listened to a story: 
"Yes; we had a blank of a time. We were just above 
the reservoir on Little Black Creek, near Cotton Lake — 
six on us. [The narrator gave the names.] You know 
them little swamps 'round there? Well, sir, you just 
o?"ter 've seen what happened. There were eighteen deer 
right around us and we got every one of them. The 
snow was 'bout 4 feet deep on the level. Say! Will took 
the axe and chopped one's back right in two. I cut an- 
other's throat clean off with this 'ere knife. George rid 
one 'bout 40 rods with his arm 'round its neck swearin' 
cause he couldn't git his knife out. When he did! Lordy! 
He slashed the jugular and held his head in the runnin' 
blood so's he'd look pretty, I Veckon. I telLyou, yeh 
never seen sech sport in your life. I^othin' but blood, 
hair an' snowshoe tracks all over. The blood's on my 
snowshoes yet. You'd 'a' thought it was a slaughter 
house, everybody was so bloody. We piled the fore 
quarters all in a heap to let folks know we'd been there. 
Lven then we had to make two trips with our packs to 
git the best meat out," 
I have seen homeless men clubbed and arrested for 
sleeping in an areaway in New York city, and boys 
locked up for playing ball and little girls sent home cry- 
ing for dancing to the music of a hand organ, but I have 
vet to hear a cruster of deer even deny his deeds in the 
North Woods. They are proud of what they do. When 
iisked about the game protector: 
"Huh! We alwaj^s know when he's a-comm . That 
IS to say that somehow or other, when the game pro- 
tectors are rustling in the brush a bit to roll up a bill of 
expenses, the violators of the law, who are usually voters, 
are not at their work. But even the boys violate the 
law— they man the runways, they tramp on snowshoes, 
they sit at the paddle or bow of jack-lighted boats, and 
kill more deer than the law allows, and are proud of it. 
I am informed that Mr. Hy Waite does not violate 
the game laws. The woodsmen here say that so far as 
known he has always strictly obeyed the mandates of the 
law in so much as he is a private citizen. In fact, it is 
stated that he couldn't violate the law if he tried. No 
one denies him the ability to follow a wagon road even 
through a clump of woods — in fact, he is a lumberman. 
A game warden should be the best woodsman and 
hunter in the country. He ought to be able to follow a 
vvalking deer's track on bare ground — or a man s. He 
ought to know the country well — every hunting ground 
tlioroughly, the runways and still waters especially. He 
should be willing to travel long miles to the swamps 
where crusting is done, and able to maintain himself there 
on a chunk of salt pork and a box of matches just like 
any good woodsman. That he must be fearless goes 
without question, and as well he must stand to his duty. 
What could such a man do in the northern part of Her- 
kimer county? There is not one pond or still water in 
that region which does not feel the silent jacker's beam 
of light before the season opens; not a deer on the out- 
skirts of the woods but hears the "mellow bay" of a 
hound on its trail before the season is a month old; not 
one deer within fifteen miles of Northwood, within ten 
miles of Wilmurt or five miles of Noblesborough which 
survives the winter. 
"I never sawagame protector," a man told me in North- 
wood the other day. And the fellow who told me about 
the eighteen deer didn't know Waite from Adam. All 
that is needed to correct the abuses of the game regions 
is to have a man whose idea of duty is duty and not 
something else. The very presence of .such a man in the 
woods would keep nine-tenths of the violators at home. 
They think that the protector couldn't find the Twin 
Lakes or the Black Creek reservoir without assistance if 
he tried. Therefore they are not afraid. 
Just suppose Fred Wood was game protector here 
in Herkimer county. He is twenty-five years old, more 
than 6 feet tall, agile as a cat, can cut a thousand trees 
to any other man's eight hundred, can still-hunt a deer 
successfully anywhere, knows every trail from Grant to 
Honnedaga Lake, from Moose River to Morehouseville, 
and can follow them in the dark — has followed most of 
them at night some time or other. He knows every man 
here by sight or better, can hold his own in a fight and 
knows every trick and device used by the law breakers. 
He is frequently chosen to be floor manager where trou- 
ble is feared, and as deputy sheriff stopped a prize fight 
where lumbermen were the spectators. He is one of 
the best all around woodsmen in the Adirondacks. He 
would square matters beautifully. 
Curiously enough, the law breakers give as an excuse 
the trite saying: "If we don't somebody else will." And 
they say, too: "If the others would stop we would." 
And men who have habitually violated the law are work- 
ing now to have a first-class woodsman put where his 
training Avill do the most good . 
Just another instance, then I will close for the present: 
All summer long a man named Davis has been at North 
Lake, a Black River canal reservoir owned by the -State. 
He claimed to be a "game protector" and showed papers 
to that effect. He threatened to arrest people who were 
walking along what is believed by woodsmen to be a 
public highway on a charge of violating the game law, 
and Fred Wood, one of the men, told him that if he 
(Davis) wanted to get law breakers, why didn't he go 
to Twin Lakes, where bounders were? Davis, the State 
protector of game, said that he was employed by a pri- 
vate sportsmen's club and couldn't leave its preserves. 
Davis is also said to have had the cheerful habit of order- 
gin people to stop fishing in the State reservoir. 
This is only a little of what might be said on the sub- 
ject, but I expect that a different story will be to tell 
next summer, for we are hustling to get good men where 
good men are needed. Raymond S. Spears. 
Northwood, N, 
Arkansas and the South* 
Little Rock, Ark., Nov. 17. — Every shooter in this 
neck of the woods and the fuel men as well have been 
beseeching the weather dispenser to turn on a cold wave 
that would at least contain the semblance of a frost, and 
thereby put an end to the summer-like warmth. Here 
it is in the middle of November and still overcoats and 
fires are unnecessary, while we have also had ver}' little 
rain within the past three months, all of which has done 
much to disappoint the shooter as well as upset his calcu- 
lations. What gave every promise of being one of the 
very gest game seasons that we have experienced in the 
South within a decade has turned out a most disappoint- 
ing one, not because the game supply has not come up to 
expectation, but simply through adverse weather condi- 
tions. From most all localities come the reports of abun- 
dance of game, such as deer, turkey and quail, but at the 
same time ever)^ one says that it is out of the question to 
enjoy a good day's shooting, owing to the extremely warm 
weather and the drought. The drought has caused much 
of the big game to leave its usual haunts and move in to- 
ward the water courses, for many of the smaller bayous, 
lakes and sloughs are dry, and it is seldom that water can 
be found anywhere except in the larger streams, so that 
it is along these the big game is most likely to be found. 
It is almost impossible to hunt quail at present, notwith- 
standing their largely increased numbers, as the dry, hot 
weather precludes the possibility of a dog smelling them at 
any distance. Then, too, they can only be found in the 
fields and openings early in the morning and late of an 
evening, vidien they come forth to feed and roost, as the 
rest of the day they generally spend in the thickets and 
wood where they are protected from the sun. 
The vegetation is unusually rank, and though we have 
had several killing frosts, this has done very little to 
diminish the cover, for though most of this is dead, it is 
necessary that we have a beating rain to knock it down, 
so as to enable one to keep his dog in sight. Of course 
the native game will keep, and no doubt as soon as the 
weather becomes more favorable the expectations of fine 
sport will be realized. However, it is the duck hunter 
who is suffering most by the conditions, for if the weather 
had been colder we should certainly have been enjoying 
royal sport with these birds, as there is an abundance 
of mast, and the scarcity of water would have forced 
them to concentrate where this does exist. This was 
demonstrated during a litUe cold snap we had about the 
21 St of last month, at which time for the brief period of 
a week the shooting was better than for several years 
past, and some very good bags were made, while it was no 
trick for even the juvenile shooter to bag a few ducks. 
At Flagg Pond, just below the citj% Mayor Woodson and 
J, K. Thibault made some fine bags — in fact they actually 
got all the duck they wanted, and quit when it was 
possible for them to materially increase their bag. The 
best bag that has come to my Icnpwledge was made on 
Unknown Cypress by Will Schaer, who bagged forty- 
seven in less than a day's shooting. The most disappoint- 
ing part of the duck situation is that while dotiMess we 
shall yet get good shooting, their stay with us is apt to 
be of very short duration, for as soon as it gets cold 
enough to form a thin skim of ice on the lakes and ponds 
they go further south, and we shall have to wait another 
year for our duck shooting or else follow them Lo the 
Texas coast. 
The above conditions apply generally to the South, and 
will be found very similar in Arkansas, Mississippi. Ten- 
nessee, Louisiana and Texas. However, deer, turkey and 
quail are very abundant in most of these States. 
In a number of localities in Arkansas forest fires are 
raging, and this will naturally drive the game to the 
parts that escape devastation. At present there is little 
sign of relief, as there are no indications of rain or 
colder weather to be discovered on the weather chart. 
Paul R. Litzke. 
Just How it Happened. 
Away down the valley above the tree tops the long, 
gray streaks were broadening in the eastern sky. We 
quickened out pace, and Frank swung into his long, 
awkward mountaineer stride. We wanted to get to the 
flat before the day had fully dawned. 
The morning was crisp and the frost on the dead 
leaves made still-hunting difficult. The frozen clods 
crunched beneath our feet as we hurried on munching in 
silence the cold biscuit and hunks of venison hastily 
snatched up at camp. . 
Turning sharply to the right, we slackened the pace to 
almost a crawl, and worked our way down an old trail 
toward the river. Frank did a star equilibristic act on 
the frost-covered log across the Big Logan, then stood and 
solemnly watched me "coon it" across in a painfully un- 
dignified but silent manner. 
The woodsman waved his hand toward the river and 
turned down the valley without a word. I watched him 
with some admiration as he went noiselessly over the 
leaves toward the lower end of the flat. He made no 
sound as he carefully placed his weather-worn shoe pacs 
now on a mossy pad, then on a stone, always choosing 
well and making good progress. 
My station was an open space 200 yards oflf, midway 
between the Logan and the river. I commanded a good 
view across the flat. 
It was daylight now, and the broad brow of old 
Lunkasoo wore a golden crown, a gift from the God of. 
the morning. The open elm timber in the flat afforded an 
excellent opportunity for a long shot. This was what I 
wanted. The Lyman receiver sight with the white jack 
sight forward was a combination unbeaten. Not a shot 
at game had missed, and some of them were not too easy. 
Then, too, nothing had ever moved a foot after the crash 
•of the .45-70. 
Assuredly a deer or moose running down that flat had 
no show of getting across to the ridge beyond. So much 
was self evident. 
Presently from down the flat came the sharp crack of 
the guide's rifle. It meant that game was afoot. An- 
other shot told that something had started toward the 
river, and that Frank was trying to turn them down my 
way, Then came a wait amid deep silence. 
For the benefit of youthful hunters I wish to state 
that I was cool and confident. Scarcely a quicker inove- 
ment of the pulse; respiration regular. 
The receiver sight was flat down; a movement of the 
thumb would raise it a notch or two if need be. Sudden- 
ly came the noise of hoof beats on the resounding earth. 
Closer and still closer they came, till I saw a large buck 
running almost straight toward me. He swerved to the 
right to keep on the lower side of a 3-foot embankment 
made by the spring floods, and I saw right behind him two 
large does. They were running together in single file. 
I chuckled with the humor of the thought that they might 
be "playing steam cars." I saw that they would cross my 
open space 60 yards to the left, Lt was up to me to 
"cast loose and provide," 
The right sight remained flat. It was too scandalously 
easy. The buck had handsome antlers. Concealed some- 
where about each of the does were sundry succulent 
steaks. I realized, suddenly, that mine was little else 
than a butcher's job. 
But we were out of meat at the camp. I needed those 
horns in a vacant space to the left of my sideboard. Thus 
was the still small voice of conscience hushed. _ 
The deer were running easy, apparently satisfied that 
they were now en route to safety. 
It was natural for me to fashion a smile of satisfac- 
tion at the present monumental "cinch." Two deer in 
three seconds. That was to be the story. Of course one 
doe would be allowed "life, liberty and the pursuit of 
happiness." 
The old .45-70 never roared out such a loud command 
to halt. Back from the sheer cliff's of Lunkasoo came the 
quick echo rolling midway of the mountains until the 
valley was full of thunder. The deer became three statues 
carved in granite. 
Figuratively, I advanced to the footlights to hand my- 
self a large bunch of American Beauty roses. Then that 
venison procession started down the valley. Whereupon 
the roses withered and died. Man's vocabulary was un- 
equal to the occasion. So I called on my Winchester for a 
few remarks. It spoke many times and loudly. But it 
failed signally to make a "hit" with our quadruped friends. 
The "Golden Gate Flyer" couldn't have caught them. In 
fact, they soon went out of the transient target business 
altogether, retiring from view in the leafy boudoir toward 
the ridge. 
Down at camp they counted twenty-one separate atid 
distinct shots, and dipped the colors out of Yespect to the 
national salute. Of course, they counted the echoes which 
reverberated like the b-r-r-r-t of a Gatling. 
At the top of the ridge we left the trail of the three un- 
harmed deer and returned to a breakfast where salt hoss 
was the piece de resistance. Gray Brother. 
I DON'T SHOOT | 
^ ufllil you yotif deer — aad see % 
|( that it is a deer and cot a foati. ^ 
