370 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[Nov. 10, igoo. 
So it happens that more sportsmen are voicing thpir 
regret at the departure of sunny October than it is com- 
mon to note, and so likewise must depart the chief joys 
of glad hours afield. Probably a greater number of birds 
will be shot from this date out than usual, because the 
supply is greater and men will pay stricter attention to 
the hard, exacting side of the sport than during the 
days when air and scenery existed in happier combination 
to divert and impel their attention. In the vicinity of 
Ulster, Towanda, and in some of the country about 
Sayre, points reached on the main line of the Lehigh 
Valley R. R., good shooting may be ha.d on ruffed 
grouse. Gray squirrels are to be found in this same 
country. Over the State line in New York, at Van Et- 
ten, Lockwood and North Spencer — points all reached 
on the Lehigh system — satisfactory grouse covers are 
to be found. 
Wildfowl are not moving to any extent as yet in this 
country, and reports from Cayuga Lake are equally 
unsatisfactory. M. Chill. 
Adirondack Hounding. 
Saranac Lake, N. Y., Nov. 2. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Hearing that a moose had been killed near 
this place, brought in and was at the meat market, I went 
to look it over. 1 found a fine looking bull moose which, 
judging from the horns, size and general appearance, was 
about three years of age and estimated to weigh nearly 400 
pounds. Its sides, hips and shoulders, with the under 
part of the body, were nearly jet black, with bluish gray 
along the back and head, also on the legs below the body. 
The horns had a spread of about 2 feet, carrying on 
each horn one tip, or sharp point, aside from the flat- 
tened or broadened part of the horns at each upper end. 
A person in the crowd stated that the man who shot 
the moose had been arrested and would be fined. The man 
who killed it, a guide and hunter, so I heard, brought 
the moose in for sale same as if it was a calf or any other 
animal fit for meat. I am sorry for the man, also for 
the moose, as I would much rather it was alive and run- 
ning in the woods. 
Public opinion, as far as I can judge, does not seem to 
favor the strict enforcement of the game laws, and the 
consequence is that hounds are out and running each 
Sunday, sometimes long into the night. I am told that a 
certain class of men hunt on Sundays and presume that 
this accounts for the fact that the dogs are out on Sunday. 
If one asks why the dogs are allowed to run deer, the 
answer generally is, "Oh ! some men keep dogs and they 
will get out and have a race." If you suggest that it 
is against the law and ask why the game warden dots 
not attend to the matter, you may be told. "He doesn't 
care ; they all do it." And if you ask further how it is that 
some one does not shoot the dogs, as the law allows, you 
will be informed, "That no one wants trouble over a 
dog. and if one should be shot no person would own it." 
Most men, qualified to express an intelligent opinion 
on the subject, will readily admit that hounding of deer 
is one of the most flagrant violations of the game law ; 
that one dog will kill more deer in one year than a 
wolf would in a life time, as the wolf only kills to eat. 
while the dog kills for slaughter, yet thousands of dollars 
were paid out by the State for bounty on wolf scalps in 
order to give the deer a chance to live and increase, while 
now some persons breed and keep dogs in the woods, al- 
lowing them to kill deer the year round. 
It would seem to be the better policj^ to keep all dogs 
out of the woods and let the deer become so plentiful 
that more and more men will com.e into the Adirondack?, 
making a better support and living for those who live 
in the woods, and who cater to and work for those who 
come here to hunt. 
Parties residing here and who wish to still-hunt go 
away to some place where hounding is not tolerated in 
order to find good hunting. It would seem that this 
fact alone would help bring about such a condition of 
public opinion as would cause the enforcement of the 
present game law. *** 
All in Western Massachusetts. 
Goshen, Mass,, Oct. 30. — Wildcats, raccoons and foxes 
have become so numerous in Hampshire county, Mass., as 
to warrant the organization of hunt clubs. The Western 
Massachusetts Fox Club, of Westfield, will hold its annual 
hunt on Nov. 15 and 16. A banquet will be served. The 
speaking will be a feature. Worcester will send up a 
large delegation and a pack of hounds, and many other 
places in New England will be represented. Invitations 
will be sent out to a number of prominent men in different 
sections. It is expected Congressman Lawrence will be 
on hand at the banquet, and there is a possibility of 
Lieutenant-Governor Bates accepting an invitation. 
Patrick Connor, of Barre, shot a wildcat which meas- 
ured 4 feet 3 inches and weighed 21 pounds. It was 
handsomely marked with dark tiger stripes. Otis 
Witherell shot a wildcat on his farm near the reservoir 
in Westhampton which weighed 18 pounds. He says 
that wildcats are common in the vicinity. The same day 
Charles Bartlett shot a large coon. 
Benniamino Reamouth, a mighty Italian game stalker 
of North Adams, shot his hunting mate, Peter Leonesio, 
while up a tree, mistaking him for a bird. Perhaps he 
thought he was a jay? 
A number of Mongolian pheasants have been seen at 
some distance from the place where they were liberated 
in Goshen. , 
D. A. Gould's woodchuck dog, Rover, of Plainfield, 
has a record of thirty or more woodchucks for the season. 
Shooters who cross the line into Remont say that coons 
are abundant. Three sportsmen from Williamsburg and 
West Springfield killed nine near Wardsboro. 
Henry Shepherd, aged ninety, has just accomplished an 
eight-day horseback ride of 200 miles, and returned to his 
home in Northampton. He made the tour of the Hamp- 
shire Hills, and was accompanied by his son. Thos. M. 
Shepherd and President Eddy, of the National Bank of 
the Commonwealth, Boston. He takes annual rides of 
this sort regularly. Coxey, 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach at the 
latest by Monday apd 99 much eai*!!^ ^ pra«^f%bl& 
The Bore ofj^Guns. 
New York, Oct. 30. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 
read with interest Mr. Stark's remarks on the bore of 
guns in a recent number of the Forest and Stream. 
1 think, however, that he is wrong about the shooting 
of most full-choke guns. A friend of mine had a Baker 
gun, the right (cylinder) barrel of which shot to the 
left, and centered about 4 inches too liigh — as he thought. 
Finally I got at the trouble by noticing that he held to 
the left and high unconsciously. You see, his right eye 
was considerably Aveaker than the left on'e. As soon as 
he began to shoot left-handed the gun centered all right, 
and I saw him put fifty-three No. 8 shot in a small visit- 
ing card, holding the muzzle sight on a nail head in 
the center, at 30 feet. The pattern was perfect, and the 
card fell apart after the discharge. 
I have an old Shattuck "American Side-Snap," No. 
12 gauge, 30-inch barrels, that will shoot one or two 
small lead bullets up to 75 yards, as well as a small rifle. 
I learned this by putting a couple of buckshot on top 
of my brass shells, loaded with No. 6. for long shots at 
gray squirrels, and hardly ever missed the game at any 
distance. The smaller shot sometimes landed with the 
larger ones at long distances, but not often. 
If a man uses ?. single-barrel gun, his charge will 
center pretty well, even though his eyes are unequal in 
strength, and with a double-barrel his left barrel will 
do better work than his right when both are full choke. 
I am taking the ground that he has been shooting with 
both eyes open. Peter Flint. 
A Prairie Chicken Inctdent. 
The people about the Ravalli Hotel were treated to a 
rather strange experience last Wednesda3^ and one which 
could scarcely happen in a country less noted for its 
winged game than the Bitter Root Valley. The people 
in the kitchen were startled just before noon by the 
crash of falling glass from one of the dining room win- 
dow's, and at first thought that some malicious or careless 
person had thrown a stone through it. In fact, one of 
the girls in the laundry said she had seen the stone fly 
across the lawn and through the window. Mrs. Green 
called her husband and they hastened to the dining room, 
where, to their great surprise, they found a prairie 
chicken gasping its last on the floor, its throat cut with 
the glass through which it had come. The only surmise 
is that the chicken had become so frightened at some- 
thing that it had lost its head and dashed into the window 
without really knowing where it was going. The force 
with which it struck may be in a measure realized when 
it is told that the glass which it crashed throi:gh is a 
heavj' plate glass, 5 feet square. An almost similar ex- 
perience was had a couple of weeks ago, when a duck, 
seeminglj- as badly rattled as the chicken, drove against 
the flag pole of the hotel and dropped quivering and 
dying upon the roof — Ravalli (Mont.) Republican, 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
ANGLING NOTES. 
Disappearing Ducfes. 
St. Augustine, Oct. 2g.^Edifor F&fi 'st anat Stream .- 
It's not a matter of very great consequence, I suppose, but 
I'll add another pair to Mr. Hough's mysteriously dis- 
appearing ducks. One dav on the Calumet two of us 
were after ducks in a small boat, my companion rowing 
very quietlv along near the edge of the grass and I stand- 
ing guard in the bow of the boat, when a pair of mallards 
popped up within about 10 j'ards of us. and both fell, an- 
oarently stone dead, before they had got fairly under 
headway. We supposed thev were a badlv cut up pair, 
hut when ^ve went tn take them in out of the wet not a 
feather cottld we find, and though the water was clear of 
srass in front of us. not a sign of them could be seen. 
We had to leave without them. Didymus. 
New Jersey. 
Bayville, N. J., Nov. I. — To-day found more birds than 
I have ever found in any Northern State. There are 
hardlj' any duck, brant or geese in the bay. There has 
been no snipe this season. Herb. 
See the list of good things in Woodcraft in our adv. cols. 
DON'T SHOOT 
Until you see your game, and 
see that it is game and 
not a man. 
"That reminds me." 
They are telling in the Lake George tegion 6i a. New 
Yorker who appeared there last summer, with designs 
upon the bass fishing which were altogether out of 
proportion to his experience in the business. He had 
a camping neighbor, however, who had both the designs 
and the experience. Seeing him bring in a string of bass 
one evening the New Yorker aslced him what bait he 
had used, and was told that it was crickets. The next 
morning he was seen skirmishing aboxit industriously 
with a spade, but apparently in vain, for he approached 
his neighbor and said: "Would you mind having your 
boys dig me some crickets? I can't find a oje." 
. , C^P-FiRE, 
^*An Old Man's Holiday." 
Mr. Edward Marston, the father of Mr. Robert B. 
Marston, has given us another most charming little book, 
with the title "An Old Man's Holiday." He adheres to 
his pen name of "The Amateur Angler" on the title page, 
but in this day it so thinly veils his identity that I have 
dispensed with it for the purpose of this note. 
Charming is an adjective that has become rather 
hackneyed in writing or speaking of men, women and 
books, but years ago it seemed to me to be most appro- 
priate in describing the elder Mr. Marston's little books, 
for his writings really charm his readers, and I like to 
adhere to the descriptive term with each succeeding 
book, for the charm grows more and more potent. 
Listen to the dedication ; 
"To my son, R, B. M. (Piscator Major), and to my 
good friend, G. Y. (The Professor), expert anglers 
both, my frequent companions on my Angling Excursions, 
I dedicate this little book. 
"The thoughtful care of the former in all that contributes 
to my welfare, and especially in providing me with the 
needful implements of destruction when I go a-fishing. 
and the unselfish anxiety with which the latter, by good 
advice and ready help, sought to save me from many a 
scrape into which my juvenile rashness and inexperience 
must otherwise have plunged me, surely deserve and 
demand this slight recognition of their goodness, and I 
seize with pleasure the opportunity which is here aflforded 
me of -expressing to them my love, my gratitude and my 
good wishes. The Amateur Angler." 
Some years ago Mr, R. B. Marston sent me some pink 
and some white hawthorns, or Mays, as they call them 
on the other side, and they have grown famously, and 
the frontispiece of the little book now before me is a repro- 
duction of a photograph showing Mr. Marston the elder 
and Mr. Marston the younger on "Our seat under the 
May tree." There are a fishing house and a landing net 
and a fly-rod and a river in evidence, and it might easily 
be imagined that the May fly were up. The other illustra- 
tions in the book are chiefly from photographs. One is a 
reproduction of a May fly, and this is the legend: ' 
"Here Is a picture of the G. O. M. May Fly imitation, 
after it had been worn in the gill of a trout for over 
nine months, as described in the last chapter. Of 
course, there is no particular novelty in finding a fly in a 
trout's mouth, but it is somewhat of a novelty to be able 
to identify the fly, and to find it in such a perfect state 
of preservation after so long a time of wear and tear." 
It is remarkable, indeed, to find a fly in a trout's mouth. 
This fly was fixed outside the gill, after nine months, and 
therefore I copy the description in the last chapter; 
"The Major caught a brace of trout and several trouble- 
some grayling; the largest trout was about 1% pounds, 
and by this trout there hangs a tale. When I was fishing 
in the same meadow last June I lost many a trout and 
many a May-fly. Now it so happens that in the gill of 
this trout was found, firmly hooked, a perfect May-fly, 
the G. O. M., with 6 inches of gut. He has worn and 
no doubt been \ery proud of this distinctive decoration 
ever since. It seems to m.e to be a very remarkable thing 
that a fly and hook should have been in that fish for more 
than nine months, and now as perfect and fresh as if it 
had been in m}"^ pocketbook all the tim.e. The gut is 
rather rotten. 
"The gold tinsel around the body is as bright as ever 
it was. One Aving is slightly mangled, as if other envious 
trout had tried to nibble it. I fully believe that fly is 
mine, that I lost that fish on that particular spot last 
June. The only doubt I have about it is that I then esti- 
mated the fish I lost as at least ly^ pounds, whereas this 
one, after nine months' growth, now weighs only 1% 
pounds, and on the other hand, you know how much 
larger are always the fish you lose than those you take! 
The fly is distinctly a G. O. M. of Mrs. Ogden Smith's 
make." 
The book may be the record of an old man's holiday, 
hut it is written with all the vigor and exuberance and 
exhilaration of youth, and may the same hand continue 
to write books with the rigor and charm of perpetual 
youth. 
Adirondack Ponds. 
Mr. L. O. Crane, of Boston, writes me the following 
interesting letter: "I note in your 'Angling Notes' in 
Forest and Stream of Sept. 29 that you cannot find out 
anything about the food supply in Spring Pond up Bog 
River. It should not be difficult to get this information, 
for the pond is well known by all Saranac guides, and it 
is easy of access. 
"It was a few years ago, when I fished it last, very well 
:stocked with chubs and other small fish, especially with 
sunfish, which fairly swarmed there. A great many 
trout of 5 pounds weight have been taken there on troll 
and with live bait, but as far as I can learn never one 
on a fly-casting, though a great many have been taken 
on flies trolling, even with no bait on, and I am satisfied 
if they were fished for persistently at the right time 
they could be induced to rise and could be taken casting. 
"Spring Pond was without trout until something like 
fifteen years ago Walter Aiken, of Franklin Falls, N. H. 
(now dead), with, I think, Lem Corey (gone too), and 
Robert Nichols, as guides, brought over from Grave's 
Pond twenty trout and released them at the Spring Pond 
landing. Nineteen of these fish swam off all right, and 
one turned up and was taken out. This stocking Avas 
kept a secret for some years, and they_ did not try the 
pond from year to- year, probably thinking it would not 
pay for the time expended, until on one trip one of the 
party saw a large fish rise while crossing the pond on the 
Avay to Grave's Pond, and they then decided to troll it. 
The result was a surprise. They took something like 
fifteen or twenty trout that were_ all about of the same 
size, and averaged in the vicinity of 5 pounds each. 
George Fayette, who works at Ne-ha-sa-na, was in the 
