49^ 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
rT)ec< 16, 1895. 
not only do the deer increase in numbers, but they in- 
crease in size as well. 
"I should like to see the 'State go into the work of 
stocking the Adirondacks with moose, caribou and elk, 
just as it has stocked the Catskills with deer. A couple 
of thousand acres of burned lands in the eastern part of 
the woods niight be taken up and fenced, and stocked with 
these animals, and after they had increased to the capacity 
of the inclosure, the surplus could be turned out in selected 
localities to shift for themselves. It should not take 
long in this way to have a breeding stock of big game 
scattered over the Adirondacks, and the attractions of the 
region from the sportsman's standpoint would be very 
greatly heightened." B. 
In New England. 
Boston, Dec. 9.— Still the American Express Co. con- 
tinues to land deer directly into the stores of commission 
agents in the Boston markets. I saw two handsome 
bucks unloaded from one of the wagons of that com- 
pany yesterday into a well-known commission store. 
There were no' names on the game— only a card or tag 
showing that thev had been forwarded by the American 
Express Co. If this forwarding business is all clear 
and above board, why is not the shipper's name on the 
venison, the same as it would be on any other goods? 
It does no good to ask either the express drivers or the 
receivers where the game comes from; they have noth- 
ing to say. or declare that they do not know. It is 
dottbtful if hunters are now bringing this game out of 
Maine, for there has been an absence of snow in tha( 
section for fully a week— up to within a couple of days; 
hence very poor hunting. Besides, outside sportsmen 
have generallv put up their rifles for the season. 
Mr. J. H. Tones is something of an exception amoiig 
hunters. He" is glad that he did not shoot at a deer m 
the woods above Bemis the other day. He had sep- 
arated from his two hunting companions and was work- 
ing carefully along an old logging road. Suddenly he 
saw a motion in the thick trees and underbrush, at close 
range. His first impulse was to fire at what appeared to 
be the body of a deer. He was sure he saw a motion. 
Like a flash it came over him that his hunting compan- 
ions might be returning: it was in that direction that he 
should be looking for them. He stooped down to get 
a better view. At his motion up bounded a handsome 
buck with a "blow" that nearly took the hat from the 
hunter's head. In a moment he was -^one in the thick 
brush, and gone was Mr. Jones' chance for a shot. Did 
he wish he had fired? Yes. But then comes the thought, 
What if I had shot one of my companions? He says to- 
day th.at he is glad he did not fire. The danger was too 
great. Would that every hunter would be as careful. 
Mr. William Garrison Reed has two very handsome 
heads, mounted by Frazar and hung in his office, the 
result of his hunting trip to the headwaters of the To- 
bique, in New Brunswick, this fall. One is a good head 
of a bull moose and the other a fine specimen of bull 
caribou. Both were shot within a short distance of each 
other. The moose was lured by the calling of the guide 
Alec, and Mr. Reed, an amateur moose hunter, tells a 
thrilling story of his experience. He hunted moose la; 
year without success. This time the moose answered al- 
most the first call of the birch horn. The hunters were, 
in a canoe, and the paddle was quickly forced into the 
mud to steady the craft. Another call or two, and then 
Mr. Reed saw plainly the antlers of a moose through 
the thick trees about 70 yards away. He fired three shots 
with his 30-.IO. and then the moose started to move 
away. In 'doing so he plainly exposed one ear and a 
part" of the head and neck. Here was the last chance. 
The hunt^er fired again, but had the chilling chagrin to 
see the big fellow move ofT. The guide jumped ashore 
to look for blood signs. During his absence the hunter 
suffered all the pangs of disappointment, that only a 
hunter knows how to appreciate. He had been to all 
his trouble and privation, only to make a miss on his 
first moose. But suddenly the guide calls for the rifle. 
There was a muffled sound in the woods. The hunters 
rushed in that direction. There was the moose down 
and breathing his last, but a few rods away. 
Mr. Reed has made some careful rifle studies, hgur- 
out the speed of bullets and their striking force, and 
comes out roundly in favor af the little .30-30. . 
Dec. II.— The open season on deer in Maine closes Fri- 
day night of this week, Dec. 15. Altogether the season 
will have been a remarkable one. For the past week the 
shipments of deer, noted by the Bangor & Aroostook 
Railroad, have been 112. These, added to the previous 
shipments, make a total of 3,504, a number greater by 127 
than the entire shipments by the same road for the season 
of 1898, which season did not close till Dec. 31. The ship- 
ments of moose have not fallen ofif as badly as at first 
suggested. The total shipments from stations on that 
road for the present season, closed Nov. 15, were 145; 
for the season of 1898, 148. 
A remarkable feature is the way deer have continued 
to drift downward into the more settled counties of 
Maine. Here they have seemed to thrive and increase, but 
it is a question how long they will continue to do so,_ if 
the quest for them by boys and other local hunters in- 
creases as rapidly as it has been doing. Some of the i 
counties in that State are closed against the shoot- 
ing of deer at all seasons; others are not. Vivian Bearce 
shot a deer in a mountain pasture in Hebron, Me., last 
week. Ten years ago such a thing would have been re- 
markable; fifteen years ago, impossible, because no deer 
had been in that part of the country for at least forty 
years. Hebron is one the southeastmost towns of Ox- 
ford county. That lA: of the country is really well 
adapted to the succesi^f deer. There is a great deal of 
what was once pasture land, now grown up to scru. 
spruce and pine. On this growth the branches are vei 
thick and near the ground, and in such woods deer are 
really better concealed than in the heavier and older forest 
growth of northern Maine. Besides, there is an abundance 
of ground hemlock, ori which deer delight to feed iii late 
autumn and all winter; a class of deer food which is 
actually being rapidb' destroyed by them in many .<;ec 
tions of northern Maine. Ask almost any of the more 
observing guides and woodsmen, and they will tell yoa 
that ground hemlock is rapidly dving out where it is most 
fed upon by deer. In southern Maine there are thousands 
of acres of such partly grown up pasture lands, and 
thousands of deer might thrive there under proper hunt- 
ing restrictions. But under the tremendous impetus 
deer hunting has lately received in that part of the coun- 
try, the value of a nice deer or two to the people of such 
sections, a full open season of two and one-half months 
and a license system under which they can be shot in 
September — they will soon disappear forever. Such a 
valuable chance for the conservation of noble game should 
be looked out for. 
A Boston sportsmen's show is already announced for 
1900. It is announced to be held under the auspices of the 
Massachusetts Sportsmen's Association, in Mechanics' 
Building, commencing Feb. 21, and continuing to March 
10. Everything is being done to make the exhibition eclipse 
the former one. Many new features will be introduced and 
rare specimens shown. The various departments will be 
under the direction of the following gentlemen : Richard 
O. Harding, fish and fi.sheries; O. R. Dickey, game birds; 
R. Wilton Lockwood, water birds ; L. O. Armstrong, of 
Montreal, Indian department. Swimming, diving and 
other athletic departments will be under able manage- 
ment. 
The following gentlemen are directors of the Massa- 
chusetts Sportsmen's Association: Paul Butler, F. B. 
Crowninshield, F. H. Prince, John E. Thayer. T. Jefferson 
Coolidge, Jr., Butler Ames, John Burnett. Eben D. Jor- 
dan, E. J. Wardwell, Samuel D. Parker, Francis Skinner, 
Jr., Thomas W. Lawson, O. R. Dickey, Samuel J. Elder, 
Percy Parker. J. Otis Wetherbee, John C. Watson, Ed- 
ward Reed, E. C. Hodges and Charles W. Dimick. Mr. 
Dimick will as as manager, and F. B. Crowninshield is 
the treasurer of the Association. The names are a guar- 
antee of the high character of the exhibition. 
Special. 
Virginia Eastejrn Shore. 
Belle Haven^ Va., Dec. 4.— Ir^s been some time since 
I have sent you a notice direct from our game lands. In 
this part the "Eastern Sho' " of Virginia, a deer or 
turkey would frighten our local sportsmen ; but at duck 
and quail shooting we are in our natural sphere. Ducks 
were never thicker or less shy. Our boys get from a 
dozen to fifty per day. Our shooting is bothered con- 
siderably to what it was a few years ago. Oyster and 
clam boats work on the feed grounds in greater num- 
bers than ever, and consequently keep fowl off in parts 
where they are hard to get up with. Just at this time, 
when young ducks are plentiful and foolish, we are not 
bothered so much, but a few weeks' shooting will teach 
them a lesson. Our kinds of ducks are blackheads, black 
ducks, brant and a few geese, also a variety of divers. 
Geese are scarcer CA'ery year, owing to the many oyster 
boats about their feeding bottoms. They keep on now 
to the Caroiinas instead of frequenting our bays in 
myriads as they did some time ago. 
Redhead, canvasback and mallards are rarely seen with 
us, as the water is too salt. In Chincoteague Bay, on the 
coast about thirty miles above here (Hog Island Broad- 
water), redhead are plentiful, but canvasback are not found 
on the coast except in the head of large bays, like the 
Chesapeake and Delaware. 
Our game wardens went on duty last week. They 
have almost broken up trapping and night-lighting, and 
since this law has been in operation our shooting has 
greatly improved. Lighting in Chincoteague Bay has in 
the past few years been injuring shooting there to such 
extent as to prevent any shooting worth attention, except 
in the severest weather, but the warden there this year 
will enforce the law and keep the violators down. 
After the ist of January, 1900, the local law will 
cost wild water fowl non-resident shooters $ro the first 
year, $5 admision fee to our Protective Game Associa- 
tion, every non-resident being required to join it, and $5 
annual dues. After the first year the dues are the only 
fees the law will require. This change is made — from 
$5, the oresent cost to non-residents, to $10 — to justify 
more effective protection. The Game Association will 
also recommend to the Legislature now about to meet a 
few other changes in the original law. One of them will 
be to require non-residents who hunt quail and rabbits 
also to license. At present the game laws extend equal 
privileges to non-resident land hunters with our own 
citizens. J. H. Johnson. 
V 
The Shooting: License Idea* 
The shooting license idea is making headway^ The 
license system was discussed at the meeting of the New 
York League in Syracuse last week, and at the meeting of 
the New York (city) Association for the Protection of 
Game on Monda}*^ night an amendment was considered 
providing for a shooting license requirement on Long 
Island. Another amendment suggested provides for a 
■prohibition of the use of magazine guns as being too de- 
structive of game such as quail and wild duck, the killing 
of which is facilitated by closely consecutive shots. Both 
of the proposals were referred to the executive committee 
of the Association for further consideration and action. 
Bigf* Game in Western Massachusetts. 
f Last month Arthur B. Tirrell, of Plainfield, Mass.. cap- 
tured a big bob cat in one of his traps, which weighed 
25 pounds, measured 34 inches from tip to tip, and stood 
20 inches high. This is a rare visitor in the Hampshire 
Hills, and large of its kind. Wells, of Shelburne Falls,' 
mounted him, and he is now on view as one of the town 
curiosities. , C. H. 
1^7 
Netted North Carolina QuaiL 
Catfish, N. C, Dec. 3. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Birds are very scarce here, chiefly from excessive netting. 
Live birds are brought in for sale every day. Many of 
these, no doubt, go to stock covers elsewhere, but, of 
course, there is a heavy loss in transit Driver. 
Grown Up with II* 
Camden, N. J., Dec. 5, 1899.— Have read Forest and Stream 
since a kid of eight years, and would not do without it for many 
times its price. _ _ , W. B. S. 
In 'Cuban' Quail] Fields." 
Havana, Dec. 4.— Editor Forest and Stream: Two 
o'clock A. M. the morning looked lowery. threatening 
rain, but as the weather has lately been capricious, I, not 
wishing to lose my weekly day out, risked it to board the 
6 o'clock train for a fifty-minute trip into the country to 
a station where I had been told the quail were numerous 
in the adjacent fields. About 7 o'clock I had left the 
train and taken to fields I had not before traversed, 
buoyant with lively expectations of a good day's sport. 
The clouds had cleared off and the sun shone out in 
cheerful welcome to the fields of the most luxuriant 
vegetation, which also reflected upon us the same joy- 
ful spirit. Dash manifested a lively participation in the 
surrounding inspirations, and was diligent in the perform- 
ance of his part of the day's enjoyment; but, alas! for 
human credibility, we traversed one field after another 
that was blank of the beloved colins. Having before had 
some experience in the fallibility of human information 
as regards abundance of game, I had prudently directed 
my course toward fields that were known to me in order 
that if it resulted that I had been misinformed I might 
retrieve the lost morning by a successful afternoon, al- 
though this is very seldom the best part of the day. 
This prudence saved me from a complete debacle, for we 
(I and my customary Sancho Pansy) traversed nearly ten 
miles of fields well adapted for quail life, without raising 
a feather, arriving at a wayside inn, where we breakfasted 
at II :30 o'clock, with nothing to show for our morning's 
tramp except a beautifully ravenous appetite, that made 
the country cooking the equivalent of Delmonico's. 
After resting until i o'clock P. M., we again sallied 
forth to fresh fields and pastures new. For the first half- 
hour we again drew a blank; then finding a swollen creek 
in our pathway, we inquired of a passing rustic for a ford 
where we might cross. He informed us that we could 
only cross by retracing our steps about a mile to the turn- 
pike road and cross by the bridge. 
We thanked him, but assured him we were disinclined 
to that course, and would find a way of crossing lower 
down. Arriving at a country house on the bank, we were 
assured that as the river (so called here) was swollen, our 
only course was to return to the bridge; but seeing a 
pole about 12 feet" long and as thick as my arm, lying 
upon the ground in the door yard and a bean pole of 
nearly the same length, I asked the farmer to take it to 
the river, assuring him I would cross upon it. 
He reluctantly acquiesced, and we found a narrow 
place where the pole would span the creek, and strapping 
my gun to my back and planting the bean pole as near the 
middle of the stream as possible in about 7 feet of rapid 
current, I performed a circus feat of balancing over, al- 
though a sudden gust of wind took off my hat in mid- 
stream, and we had to fish it out with some difficulty 
some distance down the stream. 
It was not so simple a matter to get Sancho across, but 
by stern use of authority I succeeded, and we proceeded 
on our way rejoicing at our triumph and had not pro- 
ceeded more than 500 j^ards when Dash announced the 
first quail of the day. 
I flushed a fine bevy and scored a right and left, bagging 
a fine pair of plump birds, and marked down the rest of 
the, covey in thick grass in open field. At last I had before 
me the promise of compensation for the hard luck of the 
morning. Of those marked down. Dash was able to locate 
h\\t five birds, and to my delight I scored five straight 
kills, and brought away seven of that bevy. 
We then turned back and crossed to the other side of 
the public macadamized road, and after ranging .several 
fields Dash finally made a stand, and arriving there I 
flushed a fine covey, consisting of perhaps fifteen quail, 
and if my luck was at a premium in that day I repeated 
the carumbola, as it is here called (R. & L.), and again 
we marked down the bevy, this time in a bushy pasture, 
in which Dash got in some fine work of trailing, etc. One 
of the best was the location of the bird after trailing at 
least 500 yards, and then locating his bird. I flushed it 
in open field and pulled in vain upon the two triggers of 
my hammerless. Alas ! I had not pushed up the catch 
after putting in the last cartridges, and the quail went 
off laughing at both me and the dog, who gazed up at 
me in dazed wonderment as if to ask me what it all 
meant, as well he might. 
But we then had a good field before us, from which' 
Dash located and I flushed one after another, and in- 
creased our bag to fourteen quail and five misses, having 
expended but nineteen cartridges during this day's out- 
ing, arriving home in Havana at 5 o'clock P. M., tired 
and hungry, but well satisfied both with myself and my 
dog. At seventy years of age I find these outings to be 
"big medicine" for me, as substitute for articles of the 
pharmacy, and I often prescribe the same remedy for 
other persons that may be able to avail themselves of it. 
Dr. Erastus Wilson. 
In the Maine Deer Coantry. 
Camp Eureka, Lake Willinockett, Me., Dec. 7.— Here 
I am in th» wilds of Maine enjoying my first deer hunt. 
Our party consists of three, and we are having a grand 
time. Deer tracks as thick as chicken tracks in a barn- 
yard. One of the party, Elizur Thomas, of Highwood, 
Conn., shot his two deer to-day, which is pretty good, as 
it was our first day's hunt. ^ 
This camp is brand new, and is run and owned by 
Fred B. Spencer and Jewett Spencer — brothers. These 
men are experienced guides and excellent hosts. Their 
camp was built by themselves last summer, and is an idea! 
spot, just twelve miles from the railroad, but easily ac-. 
cessible. 
There is 4 inches of snow, and indications point to 
more. We are praying it will come, as the last fall is 
one network of tracks. William H. Avis. 
CHRISTMAS BOOKS. 
Books have always been and are among the most acceptable ol 
Christmas gifts. . 
The particular books advertised as Forest and Stre^ii Bopks^ 
are most fitting for Christmas gifts to a sportsman. 
It invariably happens that we receive orders for Christma.s books 
so late that it is impossible to supply the books in I'iiiie for 
Christmas. 
Order early. . L.i. l - .-. 3..t.»i S i :i ^ i' ^r ' i^ -' ^ « " - • -- ^-^ 
