2S6 
FOREST And Stream. 
fcOcT, is, 

N. D. Congresspian Fordney, of Saginaw, accompanied 
the party as far -a^ St. Paul. 
Mr. WalteT Dupee, of this city, is talking about taking 
a trip with his private car, somewhere out in DKkota, 
provided he can hear of some good goose shooting. If 
he goes he will be joined by his fri&nd, Mr. Oswald Von 
Lengerke, of this city. They are thinking about the Tur- 
tle Lake country. 
Mr. Wade Hampton Yardiey, of St. Paul, an all-around 
outdoor man, is sojoi^rning in Chicago for a day or so. 
Mr. Chas. Cristadoro, also of St. Paul, and an all- 
round sportsman, paid this city a visit recently. 
Mr. Church, of Elgin, 111., a member of the Peary re- 
lief expedition, has returned to his home, with many 
trophies and many exciting stories regarding his expe- 
riences in the far North, some of which stories we may 
hope to read in the Forest and , Stream one of these 
days. Mr. Church killed a great many walrus, and he 
states that he found the .30-40 rifle about the only gun 
Avhich was reliable on that game. The soft point bullet 
would not penetrate the heavy layer of blubber, but the 
lull jackets kept on going. 
From the Blackfeet Country. 
Jack Munroe writes from the Blackfeet reservation 
that he has been out for a week in the St. Mary's coun- 
try with Mr. Sexton. They got a couple of fine goats 
and saw a good many sheep. Mr. Stimson, the partner 
of Secretary of War Root, is now hunting in the St. 
Mary's. The weather has been bad. Jack says that he 
has not heard of any one killing our big grizzly, Old 
Pete, yet. He was out two weeks on the middle fork 
of Flathead with a party who got goats. They saw a 
good deal of elk sign. They were hurried by lack of 
time. Jack says that any one could get good deer, duck 
and chicken shooting down the Alissouri River. He says 
that Collins, the hard-working youth who was with us 
on our bear hunt, is still up in the mountains with a 
party, where he has been since Aug. 5. Jack says that 
he could have roped both sheep and goats during the 
past month, had there been any demand for them from 
the Sportsmen's Show in Chicago, as there was last year. 
In order to perform this difficult feat, there must be just 
snow enough, and not too much. When there is a light 
crust, through which the sheep will break, but which is 
strong enough to carry up a dog, a good dog can some 
times bay up a sheep. 
Tips on Deer. 
The following are names of some points which might 
be found worth remembering by any one intending to 
kill a deer in Wiscon.sin this fall: Phillips, Fifield, But- 
ternut, Glidden, Penokee, Albertville, Downing. Jewett 
Mills, Stetsonville, Prentice, and Wooster. Phillips and 
Fifield are good places to get guides and outfits, and they 
are both near excellent deer country. Another splendid 
outfitting place is Ashland, Wis, 
"Two Kinds of Deer.'* 
A writer, giving advice on Wisconsin deer shooting, 
curiously brings up the old idea of .the Wisconsin guides 
that there are two kinds of deer in Wisconsin, one of 
which is distinguished from the other by being shorter 
legged, and very much heavier. Of course the blacktail 
deer is unknown in Wisconsin, and these short-legged 
deer must be called whitetail deer, just as the others. 
The writer comments regarding them as below: "There 
will be noticed two varieties of deer in Wisconsin, which, 
while some people strenuously contend that they are dis- 
tinct species, I am convinced are merely variations in the 
same species. Most deer killed in this region are slim, 
graceful animals, clean cut and rangy as a thoroughbred 
horse, standing well up on long, trim legs, but it is not 
at all unusual for a deer to be killed whose whole appear- 
ance is one of aldermanic solidity." 
Auction of Moose Heads. 
Sam Fullerton, State Warden of Minnesota, this week 
auctioned oft nearly a dozen moose heads, all confiscated 
from the spoils of illegal shooters. Some were fine speci- 
mens. E. Hough. 
HAM70KD BuiLDiM O. Chicago. IH- 
Some Swamp Experiences. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
This is my thirtieth year with a shotgun and rifle, and 
having shot most of the different animals from Maine to 
Florida, I have naturally had some rather novel fights. 
My first experience was with a two-year-old buck here in 
North Carolina. I broke both fore legs and my gun at 
the same time, and, as I had no dog, my knife was the 
only remedy, aided by a small hickory club. The victory 
was not to the deer, but I had to borrow a suit of clothes 
before I could appear at dinner, and it took a large sheet 
of court plaster to mend my skin about in places. 
My next adventure was with a black bear in the Dismal 
Swamp, near Lake Drummond. I had only a 14-bore 
muzzleloading shotgun, charged with buckshot. My first 
barrel broke the right hind leg, my second the under jaw. 
There was no time to load, even if I had not lost my 
powder flask, but the bear was in a hurry to embrace me. 
The briars and undergrowth were so thick I could not 
walk — in fact, I had been crawling for a mile or more, fol- 
lowing nine little rat dogs, which were constantly nipping 
at the old bear, and persuading me to follow on if I wanted 
the biggest old she bear in the Dismal Swamp. I had a 
long knife and a tomahawk-like hatchet, which I had used 
for blazing trees, so I could find my way out. We had a 
lively time of it for perhaps ten minutes, which seemed 
like ten hours, and the bear was dead. Four days in bed 
and a new suit of clothes settled this fight ; but I haven't 
lost any more bears, and I am perfectly willing to let the 
other fellow have them all. 
These animals were, of course, wounded, and I did not 
blame them for fighting, but my worst fight was with a 
North Carolina wild boar, which came for me before I 
thought of shooting hitn, and the worst part of it was 
that powder and ball would not kill him. If I had to 
tackle them both again, I would prefer the bear. My 
experience has been that almost atiy animal will fight if 
their young is disturbed by man, or if wounded, but, on 
the oAer hand, they all prefer to nm aWay, except wild 
boars. Mo4b Anok. 
Settlers and Game. 
J^rcm the ^"Gaine Fidds of Ontario," by ^ames Dickson. 
It is urged by many that the poor settlers in the back 
country should be permitted to kill deer at all seasons of 
the year. And without looking into the matter, this 
sounds reasonable. 
As the law is at present, settlers, also Indians in un- 
organized territories, are not amenable to any of the provi- 
sions of the game laws inasmuch as they may kill all 
they require for their own use or that of their families, 
but must not otherwise dispose of any. And this privilege 
is being abused in a manner that no doubt was never 
contemplated by the Legislature. I have known musk- 
rats and beaver taken under this provision ; and when the 
parties were remonstrated with, they coolly said they had 
been killed for food. Kill a beaver, destroy a skin worth 
from $10 to $12, for fifty cents' worth of meat. Had the 
party who trapped them not known where he could dispose 
of the pelts, those animals would never have been caught. 
I submit, and have urged, that the animals that are 
thus allowed to be taken should be clearly specified in the 
act, and that they should be restricted to the taking of 
deer, moose and caribou alone. This is a striking illus- 
tration of the wisdom and propriety of hedging around 
unthinking and improvident persons with such restrictions 
as will effectually prevent them doing anything the 
Legislature never contemplated they should do. 
As to poor settlers' rights, how many of them, or what 
percentage of our population ever hunt any at all ? There 
are not 20 per cent, of the settlers in any newly opened 
townships who ever either fire a shot, handle a steel trap, 
or set a dead-fall. No doubt there are a number, but they, 
too, are in a small minority who annually spend ten days 
or two weeks in the fall of the year in the woods to have 
a deer hunt and a few days' fishing. But at no other 
season of the year do those men ever handle either a rifle 
or shotgun. And not one of such is ever heard com- 
plaining that the game laws are too strict. Here let me 
invite the reader to look around in either town or coun- 
try and note how small a percentage of the population ever 
indulge in even this annual outing. I submit that I am 
well within the mark when I say that not one settler in ten 
ever hunts any. 
Go through any of the townships, even in the heart of 
the deer and fur country, and ask the first twenty settlers 
you meet if they kill many deer, and the answer of three- 
fourths will be "I never shoot any; I have no time for 
hunting. I find more profitable occupation in improving 
my farm," Pass through any newly formed settlement, 
and if you find an ill-fenced, small clearing, with small, 
dilapidated buildings, a very poor showing of farm im- 
plements, but a good, up-to-date rifle, a few rusty steel 
traps scattered around, with one or two pelts of wild ani- 
mals nailed on a wall, your approach heralded by a slim- 
flanked hound or two, not always chained up, and you 
may rest assured that you have struck the domicile of the 
poor settler who is so constantly crying out against the 
stringency of the game laws. At the end of a decade pay 
another visit to the same locality and you will note the 
improvements in all the surroundings of the man who 
devotes his whole time to his farm, while the poor settler, 
who is ready at all times to abandon axe or cradle for a 
chance shot at a deer, is still occupying the same tumble- 
down, primitive, little shack; still uttering bitter invec- 
tives against the game laws and all governments in gen- 
eral, I have known some of those to bring down as many 
as from forty to sixty deer in a single season, but never 
knew one to produce a large field of fall wheat or any 
other variety of grain. In this category I do not include 
the professional trapper, who goes into the woods along 
with, or a little in advance of, the prospective farmer, with 
the sole object of living by the fruits of the chase, but 
only those who style themselves farmers and whose want 
of success in life proves to a demonstration that farming 
and hunting are two occupations which, to put it mildly, 
do not thrive well together. It would prove an unalloyed 
blessing to all such men and their families if there were 
not a head of game in the country. 
Again, it is being urged, better let the settler kill the 
deer than have them devoured by wolves. This style of 
argument is too absurd to be worth discussing, although 
it may at first sight seem like sound reasoning. 
Many deer are no doubt annually destroyed by wolves, 
but the numbers so made way with are steadily decreasing, 
as the wolves are undoubtedly growing scarcer each year, 
and, moreover, lighting a candle at both ends is not the 
best way to prolong its existence. 
The wolf, though a very great rogue, is held responsible 
for many depredations of which he is not guilty; for 
numerous crimes committed by the settlers themselves. 
I have never yet met the man who admitted to ever having 
killed game out of season or a greater number than the 
law entitled him to. 
A few years ago the writer was sent into one of our re- 
mote back townships to do some work. It was in the 
heart of the deer country, in the month of March. The 
snow w^as deep with a heavy crust. The wolves were 
reported as "killing the deer out of face," to the lasting 
injiiry of the poor settlers. I never saw the track of a 
wolf during the trip; but driving along a main highway 
one day I saw the newly slaughtered heads of five deer 
.stuck in a row, nose down, in the snow by the side of 
the road, set up there presumably by the wolves, a cast- 
ing of the gauge of battle at the feet of the law. 
The following day business called me to the home of a 
settler. His shack stood on the bank of a lake famous for 
its trout. As I approached the little cabin I was welcomed 
by the baying of a half-starved hound chained to a stump 
of a tree. The quantity of deer hair scattered around 
bore ample testimony to the source of his food supply. 
The owner, a great, stout, young man, in the prime of 
life, stood, pipe in mouth, by the side of a hole in the 
ice, bobbing a short line up and down, fishing for trout — ^a 
fair average specimen of the poor settler who is a daily 
martyr to oppressive game laws, and the wolves. There 
was abundance of work to be had in a lumber camp within 
an hour's walk of his home, but he was subject to a 
chronic attack of illness whenever he essayed to swing 
an axe or pull a saw, while he invariably enjoyed robust 
health while either trapping or fishing. 
On another occasion I had. a professional call into an- 
other section of the deer countrjr where there were some 
poor, oppressed settlers. Here Slso the wblves were said 
to be committing s^d ravages. I and my party had snow- 
shoed all day without seeing either a track of a wolf or 
deer. Toward evening in a small , grove of hemlock we 
came across a dozen or so of old deer beds, but not a 
single deer. Leading out from among the hemlocks were 
four depressions or trails in the snow as if a log had been 
drawn through it. All the trails converged into one. a 
short distance from the hemlocks, which headed in the 
direction of a settler's clearing. Need we pause to con- 
sider what those trails meant? Here was a small herd 
completely wiped out by wolves at a season of the year 
when the hide was utterly worthless, and there was 
scarcely flesh enough on the bones to hold them together. 
This is the first instance on record of wolves having drawn 
the carcases of deer through the frozen snow to their dens. 
A couple of years ago some friends were out on their 
annual fall hunt; a settler proposed to keep their hounds 
until the following year. One of the party remarked, "The 
dogs may not be properly fed." "Oh," replied the settler, 
"there is no danger of that; we have always plenty of 
venison to feed the dogs on." 
These are only a few specimen cases which might be 
multiplied to any extent. 
Maine^Game Grounds. 
Boston, Oct. 7.— The Maine big game season is on, 
and it is on in full blast. If the newspaper reports are 
to be believed, such a season never opened. The papers 
of that State are emblazoned with staring headlines: 
"Plenty of Game!" "Deer and Moose More Abundant 
Than Ever Before!" "Every Hunter Gets His Deer!" 
"More Partridges Than Ever Before!" etc. All this 
is very fine. It reads like the patent medicine advertise- 
ments — all cures and no failures. I trust that the good 
readers of the Forest and Stream are not deceived 
thereby. Thousands will go to Maine this year, as last, 
and not get a sight of big game, unless they buy it of 
the guides and local hunters, who will have it "on tap" 
for them. But there is certainly some good hunting in 
Maine for the patient and the honest, who desire to shoot 
their own game, or not have it at all. Thus far, judging 
from the most reliable reports, the season has opened 
with an unusual amount of game taken. A Bangor re- 
port of Saturday evening says that on Tuesday, the open- 
ing day of the season, five deer came through that city 
on the trains bound west. This was quite a number, 
and the hunters must have been up early in the morning 
to have shot their game, dragged it in and shipped it. 
The same number came on Wednesday,, while on Thurs- 
day twenty deer arrived. The reports of the season up 
to Friday night were sixty deer, shipped through Ban- 
gor, a gain of sixteen over 1900. Friday was the biggest 
day, thirty-two deer having been received. Game Warden 
Neal, on duty at Bangor, is reported to have declared 
that the season will be the biggest on record for big 
game. On the other hand. Commissioner L. T. Carleton 
admits that there may be more moose taken this year, 
but contends that the number of deer will be less. 
A Bingham report is full of enthusiasm. It says that 
the record for deer shooting so far this season is a very 
great one. The record closed Saturday evening. In five 
days twenty-four deer have been shot. The railway trains 
that day brought about thirty hunters, who scattered 
over the different stage and other routes into the game 
country. It will be remembered that Bingham is on 
the Kennebec, and the present ending of the railroad. 
There is a vast hunting and fishing region above that 
point which has gained a good deal of repute within a 
few years. Rangeley reports are boiling over with ad- 
jectives. Many hunters were out at the break of day, 
Tuesday. Dr. E, S. Hawkes, of Newark, N. J., shot a 
big deer in the Dead River region, on the opening day. 
A Mr. Ladd, of Boston, shot two deer at Madrid, the 
same day. C. N. Prince, of Kittery, Me., shot a big deer 
at Green's Farm, Coplin, that day. A crowd of hunters 
have gone into the woods of Rangeley. By the Bemis 
route a great many hunters have gone into the woods 
ot the Rangeley region, but there are not yet any start- 
ling reports of game brought out. There comes a story 
from the Middle Dam, Richardson Lake, of a young 
lady of seven summers, out rowing with her guide. The 
guide left the boat, to cut some '^A'lgs oai the shore. Out 
of sight for a moment, he heard the calls of the child, 
and hurried out, just in time to catch sight of a big, black 
bear, that had come out of the r/oods a few rods below, 
and stood watching the child in the boat. A good deal of 
hunting has been done for iliat bear since by the guests, 
including the child's fatl.cr. 
Partridge hunting has been good there. This par- 
tridge hunting has also come very nearly to getting Mr. 
Andrew Corbin into serious trouble. With two or three 
other hunters, and a guide or two, he made a day in the 
vicinity of the Narrows and it was time to return home. 
Mr. Corbin, who had L'.sisted on hunting alone, did not 
come in. The others beca tnc alarmed, as night was 
coming on. Remembering thf Richard Knight episode 
at Bemis three years ago, the ;nrty became thoroughly 
alarmed. Searchers went ic every direction. The 
. steamer whistle was blown. gtJ u were fired, but it was 
nearly 11 o'clock at ni^ht hA the man was found. 
He had become bewilderci, irst his course, and was 
traveling directly from the lakc^ when found, though he 
had done a deal of wandering about. He could hear 
the steamer whistles and the guns, but could not bring 
himself to follow in the direction from which the sounds 
came, since they seemed to him to be entirely wrong. 
In the direction he was going there could have been 
no hope of rescue for him for many, miles. But Mr. 
Corbin may congratulate himself on not being' the only 
man who has been lost on the shores of Richardson 
Lake since the partridge season opened. A few days 
before the cook at Birch Lodge, Mr. Bayard Thayar's 
camps, at the head of that lake, went out after partridges. 
He had been cooking at the camps all summer, but 
doubtless knew but litt^^e about the woods in that sec- 
tion. At night he did not come in. It grew later and 
later; still he did not come. All were alarmed. Mrs, 
Thayer is reported to have Icken strong measures to 
have the man found, "^^en '>d passed midnight and 
he neither came is ' v to any signals that had 
