Oct. s, 1901,1 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
267 
last enough; they soon become tired and unsteady in 
their gait, and in their efforts to follow the pace the 
bull has set. snap branches underfoot that sound like pis- 
tol shots in the stillness of the forest; the catlike, stealthy 
movements of a well-built light-weight are not to be 
imitated by the guide built on the model of Hercules. 
To retreat from the wild northwest, and parry the at- 
tacks of the advance guard of winter, will often task the 
resources of the sportsman and his guide to the utter- 
most. To Avork south from Baker Lake is a tough propo- 
sition late in the season. He will find it interesting, if 
Ke attempts .to carry across the divide between St. John's 
Pond and the head waters of the West Branch of the 
Penobscot. The easiest way out is to paddle down the 
South Branch of the St. Johns to the main river, and 
work his way north to Seven Islands, about two days' 
canoeing from Baker Lake. This little settlement is the 
only speck of civilized life in the whole region. Parties 
used to be hauled across to Long Lake; if the team has 
been taken off any length of time the axe will have to 
be usef! liberally to clear it of obstructions. Once the 
lake is reached; it is an easy run past Fort Kent, French- 
ville, and other Acadian settlements, to Van Buren, on 
tlic Bangor & Aroostook Railroad. A party hunting 
near Crescent Pond can move out by way of Russell 
Pond and the Forks, tmlcss (hey have lingered too long; 
in that case, they had better try the outlet of Chinquasa- 
bamtook, which leads into Long Lake. They should 
take the first good chance that offers to fight their way 
to the foot of the lake, before they arc held up, indefi- 
nitely, by furious gales. 
Before the last hunter has drifted out of the region 
the lumbermen have moved into camp, ready to wage a de- 
structive warfare on the hapless forest. There were no 
cuttings last season west of Allegash Lake. This will 
not continue long, as the\- are now firmlj' established 
on the edge of the Bamtook country, and are working 
their way slowly, but surely, into the interior. The east 
side is being mercilesslj'^ stripped of its valuable timber 
to satisfy the rapacicms demands of the saw and pulp 
mills. Before the railroad came there was tolerably good 
moose hunting in Northeast Maine, considering the 
proximity of such large towns as Houlton, Presque Isle 
and Caribou, with electric lights, waterworks, and all 
the modern improvements. Ail the moose that are worth 
tracking now are mostly found in sly spots, places that 
sometimes escape the observation of the most experienced 
hunters. The unwise policy of allowing the undersized 
bulls to be shot will soon leave nothing in the woods 
but cows and hunters. It is utterly impossible for the old 
bulls to recruit their ranks under the present conditions. 
This arrangement suits most of the camp owners and 
t^uides, and helps swell the output at the stations along 
the line of the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad. Caribou, 
for some reason, are extremely scarce west of the Big 
Lakes, and are gone forever from Northeast Maine; but 
there is no lack of deer in the Katahdin region, and other 
points remote fxom the railroad. 
• The Acadian settlements are very ancient and interest- 
ing. Fort Kent was settled in 1755, by refugees, driven 
out of Nova Scotia. They conquered the forest on the 
upper St. John's, and founded peaceful homes; clearings 
crop out here and there, along the river, getting scarcer 
the further ui* you go, until they end at the French set- 
tlement at Allegash Falls. The country between the 
Falls and Big Machias Lake, and south of the Musqua- 
cook Lakes, is very wild, and difficult of access. The 
crowd avoids such places, and overruns the Machias and 
Kati'.hdin regions^ where camps abound. The camps 
close up to the Big Lakes are too far in to suit the army 
of easy-going sportsmen, who keep within sound of the 
locomotive whistle, where, naturally, big moose are sel- 
dom seen, except in the imagination' of the camp owner 
and his guides. 
Experience goes for much; but luck occasionally has 
its innings. A ridiculous story was told me by a native 
of a party of sporismcn who came in, on a shortage of 
"guides, supplied with a couple of cast offs. They struck 
off into the Avoods. Luck favored them; a lonely old 
bull, happening to be wandering about, encountered this 
party of misfits, who promptly saluted him with a volley 
of rifle shots, and great was the rejoicing of the tender- 
foots over the body of the fallen monarch, winding up 
the proceedings by lauding their incompetent guides to 
the skies. 
The big bulls of the east side are being rapidly dis- 
■ posed of, as, in fleeing down wind from one party, they 
are liable, without warning, to run into another above. 
The Katahdui region holds a few good ones, being a hard 
country to hunt in. The region to the north is compara- 
tively level, and here the crowd runs riot. There is no 
doubt that many of the moose, driven desperate by pur- 
suit, have fled into the wilderness west of Chamberlain 
and Eagle Lakes.' Here, for the present, they are safe 
from the deadly smokeless. It takes at least five days 
to i-each Chinquasabamtook from Moosehead. Baker 
I^ake is neai-er and tougher. This, and the lateness of 
tlie moose season, with its attendant hardships, bars out 
all but the bravest of sportsmen. The early part of the 
season is apt to be disappointing; the traveling is noisy 
unless rain has set in. By this time the moose have left 
the water and retired to the ridges, where it takes a crack 
Indian guide to track them. In Thoreau's day, the In- 
dian v/as more a creature of the woods than he is at 
present, and was rapidly exterminating the moose, until 
the law headed him off. Good Indian trackers must be 
. getting scarce now, and the sportsman that secures one 
has a prize, provided he can divorce him from fire water. 
Few or no white men can compete with the Indians on 
their chosen ground. 
The sportsman who lingers late in the Bamtook or 
Baker Lake country, waiting for a good, tracking snow, 
takes great risks; in fact, he has often to take them, or 
go without Ins moose. The closing days of the hunting 
.-eason see the whole country in the iron grip of winter. 
The sportsman must be made of heroic stuff to stand his 
ground while tlie streara.s and ponds between him and 
the settlements are locked in icj' fettcr.< The deep snows 
will eventviallv drive him out of the woods, leaving the 
traoper in solitary possession. 
September moose hunting has long been a thing of thr- 
past 'm "Maine. It-will now be necessary, in many parts* 
of Canada./. to close" tip this month, and then, to many, thf 
roinance of the forest v>ill h^ve dis^ippeared, T\\c Yotarie;? 
of the birch bark horn will sorrowfully hang up the im- 
plement of their calling; all their wild wood life relegated 
to the past. All gone, no more for them the mystery of 
the moonlight, the wild challenge from the bog, the fat- 
away reply from the darkened woods, the listening si- 
lence. Again and again the searching call lures him to 
his doom, the moonlight floo.ds the little glade, every- 
thing is ready for the sacrifice; nearer and nearer, he 
comes; then halts, suspicious, on the darkened edge. 
Pouring water fails to bring him out; we'll try him with 
the coaxer. Careful, one false note will ruin all. The 
agonized appeal of the cow, that rises on the still, night 
air, is followed by a crash, as ihe maddened bull bursts 
from the forest into the moonlit space, to find himself 
cheated. He turns to flee ; too late. Struck by the leaden 
bolt, he staggers for a moment, then drifts away into the 
darkness beyond, 'o be found by the tracker, at early 
dawn, stretched out stark and cold, in the woods he loved 
so well. A few years more and all the wild, weird charm 
that hovers about the moose caller's existence will be 
nothing but a memory of a glorious past, gone forever. 
W. C. Squier, Jr. 
R.'IMWAV, N. J. 
A Visit to Mexico. 
.'\.FTER a most delightful eight days' trip from the foot 
of Wall street, New York, on the steamship Niagara, of 
the Ward Line, we landed at Tampico, Mexico, a quaint, 
old Mexican city, yet having lots of American enterprise, 
and. in fact, a little more enterprise than the average 
Mexican city. As you leave the Gulf of Mexico (ap- 
proaching Tampico) you enter the mouth of the Pamico 
River between stone jetties that extend out into the Gulf 
about a mile from the main land, and which cost the 
Mexican Government about eight million dollars. 
Now you have entered one of the greatest streams for 
tarpon fishing on the American continent. This royal 
sport can be had on any part of this river for a distance 
of about fifty or sixty miles. In fishing for this king of 
fish, it is not a question of luck to have a strike, btit 
simply a question of a baited hook, and the strike is 
certain. As you go along the Pamico River you con- 
stantly see tlie tarpon breaking through the water or 
chasing schools of midlet or jackfish. The few men who 
have had rigs and known how to catch the tarpon have 
landed from three to four each day, and some weighing 
over 240 pounds. There was landed on the day of our 
arrival one that measured 7 feet 4 inches long, but I 
could not learn his exact weight. , _ 
The city of Tampico is located on the river, seven miles 
from the Gulf, and boasts of a new custom house that 
cost several millions of dollars, and would be an orna- 
ment as well as a pride for any large seaport in the States. 
The markets there have during the winter all the sum- 
mer vegetables and fruits, which are raised principally 
by American farmers. The farms are located just out- 
side the city. However, we. were botmd for our friend 
Cathcart's ranch, the Hacienda Multiflueres. located just 
two miles out of the city, and on the banks of the 
Tamesa River, a branch of the Pamico. 
Disembarking at Tampico, we were welcomed by Cath- 
cart, whose natives relieved us of our baggage. Then to 
the custom house, where the officials took a short view 
of our goods, which they passed without finding any- 
thing contraband. Then by carriage we were whirled to 
our friend's ranch in about twenty minutes, and just in 
time to take a view from the bluff at the large flocks of 
ducks feeding on the river flats. Then we were sum- 
moned to dinner. As we were here for shooting, it was 
decided that we should go for ducks on the morrow; but 
we simply could not resist taking our guns down to the 
boathouse, as there were so many chances of getting a 
shot in oassing. and sure enough on reaching the foot of 
the bluff we saw a small bunch of five canvasback ducks 
feeding near the edge of the reeds. Then there was a 
race, to see who could get within range first. Mr. Scott 
was first to fire ; he killed a big drake, and when they 
rose he got a duck — a nice pair of canvasbacks. 
We arranged to start early the next morning before 
daylight for the big flats, about three miles away. Our 
host Cathcart. or Jim, as his friends call him, called us at 
3 A. M. We were lighted down the bluff to the boats, 
where we found three natives looking like statues 
in the dark. Boarding three canoes, Jim advised us to 
lie down and take a nap while going to the grounds, but 
this was imoossible, as the phosphorescence on the water 
was so brilliant that we could see every little fish move, 
and the water was literally alive with them. The large 
fish- among which were tarpon, were chasing the small 
ones in a liquid fire. The sight I shall never forget. All 
of a sudden one of our friends screamed aloud; there 
had jumped into our boat a tarnon (a young one, though) 
about 4 feet in length, but before we could capture this 
beauty he was back again into the water of liquid fire. 
We were now nearing the big flat, and everything was 
still, except the squall of a flock of parrots passing over- 
head, on their way to their feeding grounds. 
Now on the flats, we were taken into a small ditch that 
emptied into the river, running through a strip of wood- 
land, and on the other side was a flat for about three 
miles, dotted here and there with a little island of tall 
reeds. The flat had from 3 to 6 inches of water on it, and 
as it was just daylight when Ave got there. I must con- 
fess that the sight was simply indescribable. 
There seemed to be about all the ducks, geese and snipe 
in all the world right there within sight. We were just 
told to Avalk right in, and as the mtrd Avas soft, we Avould 
sink nearh'^ a foot each step, and I tell you it Avas hard 
work. Jim placed us each one in a blind — a. small island 
ci{ reeds — and told us not to bother picking up our game 
until Ave Averc through. Well, George and the rest of 
us Avere shooting aAvay before we got half-Avay to the 
blind, for ducks Avere flying in CA^ery direction. I shot 
riAvay fifty shells in less than half an hour, and I had 
ducks all around me. T noticed a couple of gray eagles 
carrA' off several ducks, so the next time one of these birds 
<-amc near I killed him. I did not get any geese, although 
Jim and George Avere in their flight and got several. At 8 
o'clock Jim came along and suggested that we had better 
go. and as we were all nearly out of shells and had a big 
lot of game, we called the natiA'es ovef and carried the 
game to our boats. As it Avas still early. Jim suggested 
we catch S ff\Y perch, using the inside of a^tick fo^- 
bait. We were then soon pulling up fish of a pound or 
over, and such fun was this ; I only wish I had the time 
to tell you all about it, for it was real game fishing to the 
limit. After catching a good, heavy string, we started for 
home, arriving there about 11 in the morning, with game 
for all the neighborhood. Jim has lots of friends here, 
and ahvays manages to give away game and fish to prevent 
them spoiling. 
After the memorable and glorious sport of this morn- 
ing, Ave Avere all ready to follow the customs of the 
country and take a siesta, especially as we were to go out 
at night shooting after deer and the Avild boars or have- 
linas that Avere damaging Jim's crops. After supper we 
sailed out, Jim leading, with a jack lamp on his head; by 
his side his faithful night dog, Cohoke, a genuine Virginia 
houn'd, and a present from Mr. Scott. This night shoot- 
ing is A^ery fascinating, as one sees only the animal's 
eyes. We lit up two deer, but did not get a shot at either, 
although I have no doubt that Jim could have killed bo.th ; 
but there Avere too many of us and too much noise, so we 
did not kill anything. 
As the natives talk nothing but Spanish here, we had 
quite a time making them understand Avhen Jim was not 
on hand, but they seemed anxious to understand, and 
are very attentive. We all regretted not having tarpon 
rigs, for Ave saAv so many of the fish. We tried to buy a 
tarpon outfit in Tampico, but in vain, so we started to get 
our things in shape for a big hunt after lion, tiger, deer, 
turkey, etc. 
We arranged to go by Avagon and camp out nights, 
taking tAvo natives; Pancho as guide and Antoine as 
driller and cook. The roads were very rough, and gave 
Us a chance to get out or dismount, and Ave were ■ in- 
structed that we would have to kill all the fresh meat Ave 
needed. We had when Ave stopped for dinner eight 
Mexican pheasant and eleven quail, Avhich our cook An- 
tonio served in his OAvn style. We all insisted that we 
must have the game cooked in American or United States 
style, but Jim said, "Let Antonio have his Avay, and if his 
style doesn't please Ave will then have your way of cook- 
ing." Antonio just got a stick about 6 feet long, took the 
bark off, then sharpened both ends ; cleaned the birds after 
picking, opened them up the back, laid them open and 
stuck the stick through -them until his stick was a row of 
birds. The fire was then hot; he stuck one end of the 
stick in the ground, slanting the birds over the fire, then 
rcA'ersing by sticking the other end of the stick in the 
ground, until they Avere broiled to a turn. You can well 
imagine the rest, and Antonio was voted an expert on 
cooking game. 
After dinner Ave were ready for anything, but as Jim 
said Ave Avere eight miles from our hunting ground, we 
started off, and saAv nothing larger than a quail until about 
4 o'clock, Avhen Jim, who was riding ahead, came back to 
the Avagon and told us there Avas a big flock of turkeys in 
the open fields to the left of the trail, and advised us to 
sneak down along the edge of the woods opposite the 
turkeys, then he Avould drive the Avagon into the open so 
that the turkeys Avould run into the Avoods. There was a" 
scramble to get there first. Scott and myself got there, 
Avhen the turkeys took to the AVOods. I got them in a line 
and fired, expecting to kill all three ; they took wing, and 
after Ave had hunted around, all Ave found was some turkey 
feathers. A.s there Avere about twenty in the flock, Scott 
and I came in for a good "roast." I then came to the 
conclusion that the better way would be to shoot them 
singly with a rifle. We finally reached our grounds, and 
Jim started to get camp ready, while Antonio prepared 
supper. Scott and I heard nothing but talk about the 
nice, fat turkey for .supper that we did not get. But we 
both made a vow to be on the spot next morning and get 
turkey or die. After dusk we could hear the coyotes 
barking all around; finally Ave fell asleep listening to 
them. 
We Avere awake before daylight, and glad to get up. as 
Ave Avere stiff and sore. After a dip in the stream and a 
hurried breakfast, Ave Avere off again. Scott and I, each 
armed with our rifles, started to redeem our reputation' 
for turkeys. Pancho and George were to go for deer. 
Jim went alone for anything Avorth shooting. After goinjs 
a short Avay Ave had a shot at a running deer, which we 
both missed; then Ave saAV a single turkey. I took good 
aim, got my bird and found him to be a nice, big gob- 
bler. We Avere then some distance from the open, and 
Avent along cautiously. Sure enough, on the edge of the 
opening near this woods Ave saw a flock of about twenty 
turkeys feeding. We planned that Scott was to make a 
big circle and reach the Avoods, while I Avas to wait about 
ten minutes, then sneak as close as possible for a shot. I 
Avaited. then got Avithin 100 yards of them, keeping the 
last bush there Avas between them. I got a bunch to- 
gether, took careful aim and fired; they ran into the 
Avoods, leaving one dead on the ground. Scott" did not 
shoot nor appear, so I carried my other dead bird and 
put him Avith this one Avhen suddenly I heard a report of 
a gun, then Scott calling to me to come over. I picked up 
my tAvo turkeys and found I had quite a load. When I 
reached Scott I found he had killed a big buck. We con- 
cluded that Ave had better get back to camp, so, leaving the 
deer, each carried a turkey back, and found Pancho 
and George already in with tAvo deer, and both good-sized 
bucks. Jim had not gotten back, so Antonio took the 
horse and Avith Scott went after the deer and a coyote I 
had killed. It Avas then about 11 o'clock, when in walked 
Jim, telling us he had killed a big tiger. We took one of 
the mules, and all hands Avent along to see it, and after 
going about three miles we came to one of the larges* 
tigers I have ever seen, and so beautifully marked an<^ 
perfect, shot right through the heart. Jim told us, "1 
Avas going along, not having shot anything ; I had had sev- 
eral good shots at deer, but was looking for lion or tiger, 
Avhen right before me, not 25 yards away, lay the tiger. 
As soon as he saAv me he got up and started to walk 
aAA'ay sloAvly. tuniing around to look at me every few 
steps. I raised my rifle, but could not see the spot I 
Avanted until he turned the second time, when I fired at 
his foreshoulder. He dropped, and after a few kicks lay 
dead with a .45-90 bullet through his heart. I still held on 
to him Avith niy rifle until I Avas sure he Avas dead." 
On our road back to camp Ave saw a bunch of hovilinas 
or wild boars. We all fired and killed one and wounded 
another, and with our shooting the mule took fright and 
ran aAvay, Avith the tiger fastened to its back. After a 
chase Ave caught him and led him back for the dead hovi- 
th? woiindecl om lost, Finally ?,rrived s^t 
