cj I'd- '3 
FOREST AND STREAM 
L.Qgt. 27, 1900. 
other flocks suspect something, and after maay cir- 
clings leave for good. 
It is now after sundown, and the ducks have mostly 
gone back to the ponds. Several flocks of geese have 
been seen flying to the south during the afternoon, and 
perhaps some df them might cpme over as they go back 
to their roosting grounds, so the man waits a little while 
and is rewarded, for here they come, not 50 feet high, 
straight over him. Two shots, and the man wonders 
what is the reason he can never get but one goose out of 
a flock; but as he has nineteen mallards he feels pretty 
well satisfied after all. It is quite dark by the time the 
boys come, and the decoys are loaded in the wagon, and 
a moonless prairie is as dark as a pocket. When the 
horses get into the road they strike out at a lively gait 
and keep it up, while the folks in the wagon hold on for 
life while the wagon drops into and lurches out of 
"chuck" holes that are half hub deep. The air grows 
chilly, and by the time they reach the top of the hill 
below which they see the lights of the village these 
same lights have a pleasant suggestion of warmth and 
a hot supper. 
O. H. Hampton. 
In the Spotted Mountain Country. 
I HAVE just had three days in the woods. Two nights 
were passed in a deserted lumber camp redolent of 
jporcupines, and the third in a sweet, clean birch and bal- 
sam shelter, where, rolled in my white rabbit skin robe 
lying on the green fir bed, I could look out at the stormy 
firmament through the branches of the spruce trees and 
imagine the scintillating faint candles on Christmas trees 
of the long ago. 
This camp will be a permanent headquarters for future 
fishing and hunting trips. It is on an evergreen knoll 
jn a hardwood forest, and below is an ice-cold spring sur- 
rounded by sphagnum moss and shaded by arbor vitas 
cedars. 
Two great canoe hirches rise from the slope, and be- 
tween them I can see the slide scarred side of Spotted 
Mountain, while other mountains of greater or less de- 
gree are all around. Oct. 9 the slides on Dix were cov- 
ered with a frosty snow, while a few snow crystals lay in 
the curled up leaves on hardwood ridges at a much lower 
altitude. This was a good hunting day, but among the 
mountains the wind is never consistent, and partly from 
this cause I lost two deer. 
At 7 o'clock a large doe chanced to be crossing from 
one ridge to another 120 yards in front of where I 
traveled up the stony bed of a brook. The white clouds 
overhead were sailing directly toward me, but a vagrant 
puff of wind back backed on their course and gave the 
deer a friendly hint of my approach, with the result that 
she was under full headway when I saw her. I fired once, 
but she went out of sight untouched. 
Following her trail to see if 'there was blood, I found 
an odd thing. In her third or fourth jump the deer had 
landed squarely on a small green snake not much larger 
than a lead pencil. I picked it up, not realizing at first 
that it was a snake. It was the first and only snake I had 
seen in this locality. 
At 10 o'clock the second deer got my wind and went off 
as if the devil were after him. I caught a glimpse of 
him and fired, but missed again. 
His trail went down the mountain side, and I could see 
that another deer had gone up. Deer do not like low 
levels when danger is about, and I felt sure this buck 
would regret that he had gone down and would eventually 
rejoin his companion. I resolved to try to intercept him, 
and dedicated two hours to the purpose. 
I mounted a high stump and stood guard. An hour 
and forty minutes passed, and then the buck whistled 
above and behind me. He had skulked along the bottom 
of a gully less than a hudred feet away with a stealthi- 
ness that baffled my dull senses, and I only caught a 
fleeting glimpse of his white hinder parts as he again 
snorted his disgust at the man scent. 
At the lumber sh.unty I killed six porcupines to get 
elbow room, and there are still others there, for my last 
night's slumber was broken by the gnawing of survivors 
not included in the above list. 
I once tried eating porcupine, but tile meat tasted just 
as the beast snjells, and one trial was sufficient. It is not 
a difficult matter to skin a porcupine, and the fur is hand- 
some when, prime, either with the quills present or after 
they have been pulled out. Porcupines have three kinds 
of "hair, grading from the woolljr understratum through 
bristles into quills. The quills are only loosely attached, 
and it is easy to see how the popular superstition of the 
porcupine shooting its quills originated. If a porcupine 
is shot a number of its quills will be dislodged from 
various parts of its body and fly into the air, and I 
have seen forty or fifty quills so projected into the side of 
a wooden hottse at a distance of 5 feet at right angles to 
the line of the rifle ball that killed the animal. 
J. B. B. 
Killing Cow Moose. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I observe in the Forest and Stream of Oct. 3 a 
correspondent ^-eports having shot moose from the 
camp-fire. 
This is certainly a very rare case. I notice he speaks 
of having his camp and camp-fire on the lake, or almost 
so, where he called the moose. This is unusual and 
against all the customs of moose hunting. The camp-fire 
yhould be at least half a mile from the calling lake. The 
safer distance is from one lo two miles. 
I have just returned from a; five weeks' moose hunt 
up the Little Cascapedia. Province of Quebec, and the 
Upsalquitch, Metapedia. 
In the Province of Quebec I was very unfortunate and 
met Math bad treatment from the native guides, who were 
oflfended at me for bringing my own men. The people 
at New Richmond, or at least the guides, .seem to have 
an utter disregard of the game laws or all laws of sport. 
After towing up the Cascapedia about forty miles we 
pitched camp. Our calling lake was two miles from the 
river. On' the second visit to the lake our suides dis- 
covered the carcasses of one cow moose and calf Wiled 
as they judged about tlje f^rst- of Aiagnst. Both were ex- 
po.sed, and no attempt had been made to cover them or 
hide the remains in any way. A few days later they 
found a third carcass of a cow moose killed about one 
day before we arrived, the best portion of the meat taken 
and the rest left exposed as the others. We found on 
inquiry that two native guides had passed us during the 
night. We were on the ground Aug. 29, the season 
opening in Quebec on Sept. i. 
During ray stay on the Cascapedia we called one 
moose to the lake, and only had answer the one night, 
but did not get a shot. Saw fresh tracks, but when the 
moose smclled the decayed carcasses they left at once. 
We saw the tracks of a large bull moose where he had 
come to within three feet of the remains of a moose, and 
made one leap of at least twenty feet. Such slaughter 
of game and utter defiance of the game laws is dis- 
graceful, and the culprits should be punished to the 
fullest extent of the law. 
Pulling camp up in disgust we came down the river, 
look the train at New Richmond, arrived at Metapedia at 
5 in the evening. Next morning, at 12, we started to 
tow up the Metapedia River, until we branched off into 
the Upsalquitch and took what is known as the North- 
west Branch until we came to the forks or sheds where 
all the lumber supplies for the surrounding district are 
kept. We portaged in eighteen miles from the river, 
reaching our camping on the third day, at 2 o'clock 
in the afternoon, which was about two miles from the 
Ramsa5' Brook Lakes. There are seven fair-sized lakes 
within a radius of six miles. We pitched camp on Sept. 
25. On the 26th I left camp at I2 d'clock for the nearest 
and best lake, about two miles distant. No road, only 
a blaze. At 3 o'clock that afternoon I had killed mj' 
moose. His antlers were 54 inches. He weighed about 
1,200 pounds. We remained at the lakes four days, saw 
any quantity of fresh signs, but w'ere unable to get 
another shot. 
I intend reporting and takin^g aGtion when I have 
secured sufficient information against the parties in New 
Richmond. The game of this country should be pre- 
served for those who intend shooting in proper season 
and killing the game in manly sport. Unless notice is 
taken of such infringement of the law a,s I have de- 
scribed and reported to the proper authorities, it will be 
impossible to keep the game protected J. W. Y. S. 
MONCTON, N. B., Oct. IS. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Mississippi Valley Game. 
Chicago, 111.. Oct. 20.— It is a great comfort to get a 
good, interesting, fair-minded and intelligent letter from 
a fellow sportsman now and then telling how the game 
is getting on in any particular section, and such letters 
arc very welcome at the office of the Forest and Stream, 
as is all news of the covers and the streams. A model 
letter of this sort from a newspaper point of view, or in- 
deed from any point of view, is that just at hand from 
Mr. E. K. Stedman, who writes from Mt. Carroll, 111., 
and tells about events and things in that corner of the 
world — a very good corner, too, it has alwaj's been from a 
sporting standpoint. Mr. Stedman says : 
"This has been a very backward season so far from a 
sportsman's standpoint. 
"Last season, the last week in September and the week 
following were good duck weeks, and basing my opinion 
on these grounds, I planned my trip this year for* the 
corresponding weeks. 
"I found plenty of water, fer the Mississippi is on a 
boom this fall, the highest since '84 at this time of the 
year. The lakes are full to overflowing. The small creeks 
and sloughs are bank full. The water is up over the bot- 
tom lands and into the timber, furnishing an unlimited 
supply of smartweed, mast and seeds of all kinds. In 
fact I never saw finer feeding grounds for wildfowl than 
there is along the northern Mississippi this year. 
"I went too early. There was no cold weather, and I 
did not see any ducks or snipe, but when they do come 
shooting should be the best in years. I heard there was a 
small flight the iith and 12th inst., but warm weather 
set in and the ducks Avent north again. 
"Quail! This region has never known such an abun- 
dance of quail in a decade. I was camped on the edge 
of the river, and back of my camp was a partially over- 
flowed cornfield, potatoe patch and millet patch. It was 
full of quail. That small ten acres must have contained at 
least four bevies. I had a hound puppy with me, and one 
evening about an hour after 'candle time' I heard a 
couple of hawks screaming outside the tent. Close by the 
tent was a jumble of fallen tree tops covered with grass, 
weeds, etc., making an ideal harborage for persecuted 
small birds. The puppy picked up a trail near by, fol- 
lowed it into this network of wild weeds and flushed at 
least fifty quail. I counted five bevies as they rose. They 
flew a short distance into the cornfield. I shot the hawks 
as they circled over camp, and all evening I received 
hearty thanks from the Bob Whites as they timidly called 
to each other from among the corn and' potatoe rows. 
Next morning I flushed them again within twenty steps 
of the tent. The high water has driven them from the 
low lands so that if the present stage of water holds 
there will be fine sport on hand next month. The farmers 
here have nearly all forbidden trespassing, as per inclosed 
notices, taken from the columns of the Savanna and Mt. 
Carroll papers. Thus you see we do have some game 
protection, even if it is backhanded. But I can't blame 
the farmers. Yearly thej' show me broken down fences, 
trampled fields where the stock got out, stock lamed or 
injured from careless shooting, and they say it comes from 
allowing anybody to hunt over their farms. But a sports- 
man of the right sort, one who respects the farmers' 
rights, does not destroy _ property and is careful in his 
shooting should meet with a welcome from them. At 
least I judge so from the numerous kind invitations T 
have received to shoot over their broad acres. 
"Squirrels are thick. I see in this morning's daily where 
a couple of ambitious young bucks bagged thirty yester- 
day. What in the devil they could do with so many or 
why they should slaughter such a number is beyond my 
understanding. They certainly were not sportsmen, and 
'twill not take long to send the squirrels , to the list of 
the bison, pigeon, etc But this is an unpleasant ground. 
It makes us think less of our fellow men when we notice 
these porcine qualities, and I can only feel sorry for the 
game that meets their vision and ashamed of them. 
"Chicken shooting was very poor here this season, not 
over 100 birds being killed in the county. A brother 
sportsman told me they had taken to the cornfields, where 
successful shooting was almost an impossibility, which 
sustains your statements in Forest and Stream^ at the 
middle part of the season when the birds had unaccount- 
ably disappeared. 
"Fishing has not been much to brag about this season. 
Continued rains kept the water in a roiled condition dur- 
ing the summer season, and now the excessive high water 
has made fall fishing a vexation. At the same time it 
places a needed restraint on the same fisherman, so ' 'tis 
an ill wind,' etc., and we should be correspondingly happy 
at their depression. 
"Rabbits will be plentiful this winter, but this weather, 1 
am afraid, unless it soon gets cold, will give them the 
disease they are subject to during open winters, when 
they are then unfit for sport or food either. 
"Doves have been plentiful here this fall, and some 
respectable bags within reasonable bounds have been 
made. This is another delicate subject, as there exists 
among some sportsmen such a sympathetic feeling for this 
little bird that one is apt to get scalped even in good 
company, if he seeks to class the dove as a game bird. 
Personally, I kill doves when I can hit them during the 
open season, hut it is expensive pleasure, as they are such 
swift fliers it takes a good shot to show three dead birds 
for five empty shells. 
"Really good duck shooting should be had aborrt Nov. 
1 anywhere in this neighberhood. 
"My total for my two weeks' trip was eleven squirrels 
and eight fish. No ducks, snipe or plover at all. And I 
had a grand time just 'lazyin'." 
Just to show the extent of the farm protective move- 
ment to which Mr. Stedman refers, it may be well enough 
to print some specimen trespass notices which have ap- 
peared in the local papers of Savanna and Mt. Carroll. 
This may serve a double purpose — to show that our West- 
ern game is attaining a certain respect and a certain pro- 
tection, and to show also that the farmer is a man whose 
rights are entitled to respect quite aside from sporting 
reasons. Perusal of this long list of notices may make 
some very good fellow even a little more carefirl than he 
has perhaps been -in the past while out shooting. Some- 
times I sort of wonder what sort of a farmer I would be. 
and what I would do to a certain sort of folk if I should 
sec them come traipsing around without leave over my 
ground, which I had paid my hard dollars to buy and 
own, and on which I paid more hard dollars in the way of 
taxes. Now here are a few of the fellows who pay taxes, 
and they will serve as an object lesson, for other farmers 
are just like these, who all live within ten miles of Sa- 
vanna or Mt. Carroll : 
Any one found trespassing on our lands with dog or gun will be 
prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Hunters forbidden. 
Any one found trespassing on our lands with dog or gun will he 
prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Trapping and hunliiiK 
forbidden. 
All persons are forbidden to trespass ynth. dog dr •gun on lands 
belonging to us. 
All parties are notified not to trespass 0)S til© land of the under- 
signed. No hunting allowed. 
Notice is hereby given that any and all persons trespassing on 
my farm in .Savanna township, for any purpose whatever, will be - 
prosecuted to the full extent of the law. 
All persons are hereby notified not to trespass upon the John 
Law farm in Woodland township either with dog or gun or other- 
wise. All doing so I will prosecute to the full extent of law. 
The undersigned hereby cautions everybody not to trespass on 
liis land in Freedom township with dog or gun, or otherwise, as he 
will prosecute to the full extent of the law any and everybody 
found so trespassing. 
All persons are hereby notified not to tresspass upon my land 
in Mt. Carroll township, either with dog, gun or trap, or otherwise. 
All doing so will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. 
All persons are hereby notified that any person trespassing on 
my lands in Mt. Carrol township with dog and gun, or in any 
manner whatever, will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. 
On and after this date i will prosecute any one found hunting 
or otherwise trespassing on ray land west of Mt. Carroll. 
One of the most manly and useful accomplishments a 
city man can acquire* is to learn that he is not any better 
than a country man, and probably not as good. 
Farm Pfesefves 
The subjects brought up in the foregoing are very vital 
ones, having much to do with the success and pleasure of 
the field shooter of to-day. They bring to mind another 
matter of kindred nature, and that is the subject of farm 
preserves, not altogether new as an idea, but new in its 
application in many quarters of the Western and Southern 
shooting countrj-. 
Something of this came up not long ago in the conversa- 
tion of a Chicago nran who told me that he had acquired 
quite a little game preserve of his own out in a very good 
Iowa chicken country, by simply paying the taxes on sev- 
eral farms. The money seemed pretty big to the farmers, 
but it did not seem so very big to the city man, who was 
able to belong to shooting clubs, and to pay large sums 
of money in shooting trips to distant regions. He was 
willing to pay the money for the sport — for sport is the 
one and imperishable product of all things on earth that 
really is worth the money, but he wanted the sport for 
his liioney ; he wanted to be sure that he was going to get 
some shooting when he went out as far as lowa. Upon 
the other hand, the farmers did not care so very much for 
the birds, were too busy to go in for shooting very much, 
and were not concerned with what was more or less an old 
story to them, though it is more or less a new one to many 
city shooters, The exchange was therefore no robbery on 
either side, and both were satisfied. 
I spoke last winter of a big section of country, some 
25.000 acres, Avhich Capt. W. I. Spears had taken tmder 
control and protected near Ingram's Mill, Miss. Capt. 
Spears simply went about among his farming acquaint 
ances and secured the shooting rights on their farms. He 
gave for such rights various considerations, but rarely 
any very exliorbitant .sums. His chief object was to bring 
a considerable tract of country under a legal .status so that 
it could be protected and would be protected. He wanted 
for his services in this, and to cover the cost of holding 
these shooting rights, a nominal sum per year, and he 
said that he could_ in all probability extend his preserved 
tract to an indefinite degree. His first object was to stop 
the market-shooting for quail which he found was be- 
ginning in that neighborhood, and he did stop it, too, 
