Dec. 21, 1901.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
489 
quarter more deer and twice as many moose as the same 
man cotild if using any high power small bore, and with 
much less danger to other people. M. Hardy. 
BivEWER, Maine. 
The Maine Season. 
Boston, Dec. 14. — Returning hunters cannot sell their 
deer in the Boston markets as readily as early in the 
:season. Marketmen say that they are not wanted. Three 
as handsome bucks as were ever shot have been offered 
nearly all the week in Clinton market, and up to last 
■ evening only one had been sold. Two of them weighed 
lalmost 200 pounds each, and the other 203 pounds. All 
three had particularly fine heads; one most symmetrically 
beautiful and clear. But marketmen say that there is 
no call for deer heads. If cut off, they can scarcely 
:give them away; left on, the heads are not an inducement 
to buyers of meat. The buck sold only brought 12% 
cents per pound, against 25 and even 30 cents, paid lor 
no better deer early in the season. The marketing of 
deer by returning sportsmen has become a regular fea- 
ture here, and the marketmen all understand it. Is not 
this a strong argument in favor of limiting the number 
of deer a hunter can bring out of Maine to one? . 
It is a curious fact that a lot of sympathy runs with 
convictions for infractions of the game laws, in almost 
any State in the Union. Ira Arnold was fined $700 in 
the local court at Berwick, Me., last week for snaring 
140 partridges. He had pleaded guilty, and, since he was 
iwithout means to pay his fine, if sentence were carried 
(Out, he must spend several years in jail. The judge sus- 
Ipended sentence, on condition that the prisoner cease 
isnac-ing birds. Now, a gentleman discussing this case 
\wiitih tne, and telling me about it, a most respectable 
'doctor, with a good Boston practice, expressed the 
'Opinion that the judge did just right. "When a boy, I 
snared partridges myself," said the worthy doctor, "and 
sold them for 25 cents each. I did this to help myself 
.along with my schooling. I fail to see how snaring 
partridges is any worse than shooting them. In both 
cases the birds are destroyed." 
Duck shooting along the South Shore and down the 
Cape is not yet all done, although the sportsmen have 
generally given up for the season. The captain of a 
fishing vessel came up to Boston Friday from off Barn- 
stable. He had about 40 ducks on his craft, some of them 
black ducks. He made his friends presents of pairs of 
them. Remarked that he had never seen better shooting 
off Barnstable than he had found this week. He allowed 
that he and his men had shotguns and good ones, and 
frequently engaged in shooting ducks, when the weather 
did not admit of fishing. 
Dec. 16. — ^The Maine big game season is entirely 
closed. The legal open season on deer closed Dec. 15, 
and that on moose a month earlier. The season has been 
a most remarkable one, especially for the number of deer 
slain. The number of deer shipped through Bangor was 
not far from 4,000. Remembering that Bangor is only 
the largest one of four or five great outlets for game, 
and considering that a vast number of deer are killed 
by residents of the State and not shipped at all, it is not 
a wide estimate to put the total number killed for the 
season at 25,000. Some estimates are even larger, but 
counting only this ntmiber, and reckoning that every 
deer is worth on an average $10 to the hunter or citizen 
who secures the prize, it seems that the deer crop is worth 
at least a quarter of a million dollars to the State of 
Maine. But such a reckoning is not wide enough. It 
costs sportsmen, reckoning all that it paid into the State 
in their pursuit of deer by both successful and unsuccess- 
ful hunters, at least $100 for every deer taken by them. 
If sportsmen have taken one quarter of the deer slain, 
6,250, they have paid into the State for the same $625,000. 
Still we hear of the Maine farmers complaining of the 
loss of a few bushels of oats, eaten by the deer, and 
threatening to remove all protection from these animals 
at the next session of the Legislature. Of moose, 200 
have been shipped through Bangor, and if this means 
one quarter of the mmiber slain, and it costs sportsmen 
$200 on the average to get their moose, the moose crop 
has been worth to Maine at least $46,000. 
In another way the season has been a most peculiar 
one. There have been at least 32 persons injured badly 
by the careless or accidental discharge of fire arms when 
hunting or about hunting camps. This number does not 
include the accidents from guns of minor importance, and 
it is estimated that during the season at least 100 persons 
were injured, more or less, by the accidental discharge 
of guns, or careless shooting. Of this number eight 
have died already, and a few others arc in a bad condition. 
Tn the previous year only five persons were killed from 
the same cause, one lingering till midwinter before he 
died. What a travesty on legislation! It will be re- 
membered that Maine made a law last winter putting a 
heavy fine and imprisonment, or both, on the shooting 
of a person by mistaking him for game. But, though 
grand juries have met in at least two of the counties 
where the accidental shooting has occurred, and the facts 
have been known to those juries, not an indictment has 
yet been found. I heard a sensible Maine guide comment 
on this matter the other day, a man who has been in the 
woods about all the time dtiring each open season for 
several years. "The law is all foolishness," said he. "It 
can do no good. A fool who is crazy enough to shoot 
at a man for a deer will shot anyway; no law can stop 
him.. He does not think of the law. He is wild with 
excitement: buck fever. He does not know what he is 
about. I dread the whiskey sportsmen bring into camp 
more than anything else. When I am guiding parties 
who have it, I insist on their drinking at night. If I 
know of their drinking ever so little in "the morning, be- 
fore or after they go out, I keep watch of them. They 
:don*t get a chance to mistake me for a deer. My eye- 
sight is pretty sharp in the woods, and I calculate "to see 
them first. No," he remarked, as he drew a snoM'-white 
sweater over his shoulders, "the color of the clothing 
has nothing to do with a man who will shOot at a motion 
in the woods. He will shoo_t at a fire-red sweater or hat 
just as soon as anything. He is completely gone. He is 
crazy with hunting ej^citement. But I do believe in a white 
sweater to hunt deer in after the ground is covered with 
snoY?. Tn th? fall, before, th,* snow no^-ti^s, I wear 
outside shooting coat and hat as near to the color of the 
autumn leaves as I can get. I have seen considerable 
that has been written about wearing red hats and red 
sweaters, and I am satisfied that the deer will see such 
clothes long before the hunter sees him, and the more 
startling the color the more likely he will be to skulk 
silently away. Hunters who go into the woods have got 
to take their chances of being shot by the fools without 
either brains or experience. Law won't help in the least, 
and startling colors in clothing are all wrong, if one 
expects to see the game he is in quest of." 
The Maine game season has also been remarkable in 
another direction — the increase in women hunters and 
their success with big game. Three moose have been 
taken through Bangor by women who claimed to have 
shot the game. The successful moose slayers are Mrs. 
Elizabeth Sprague, of Boston; Mrs. S. W. Whilden, New 
York; Mrs. D. S. Adams, Manchester, N. H. Women 
hunters have taken 59 deer through Bangor for the 
season. 
Now that the game season is over the sportsmen's 
shows are next in order. The Massachusetts Sportsmen's 
-Association met recently and decided to prepare for a 
show and to open it in the Mechanics' Building Feb. 22. 
This is earlier than usual, but the feeling is that the 
weather chances are not as bad as in March. Greater 
attractions than ever before are promised, with game 
birds and animals on exhibition that have never before 
been seen in any show of this class. Greater exhibitions 
of fish and fish hatcheries are promised from the several 
New England States. 
Special. 
Funds for a Christmas Dinner. 
The Wyandanch Club, of Smithtown, is next to the 
Southside Club, the oldest sportsman's club on Long 
Island. It was founded in 1872 as the Roslyn Gun Club, 
and in 1882 the name was changed to the present style 
and the club moved to Smithtown, where it has a preserve 
of 15,000 acres devoted to quail. Working chiefly under 
the supervision of Mr. Gustave Walter, who was the 
club's founder and is now the oldest member, the Wyan- 
danch members have imported large numbers of birds 
from other States, and first and last have put out 767 
dozen quail, the overflow of which has helped to stock 
the surrounding territory. The Wyandanch territory is 
divided into seven districts, and the members are assigned 
to certain districts for the day's shooting, and that one 
gunning party may not encroach upon the particular dis- 
trict assigned to another one, club guides are employed to 
accompany the shooters. One of these guides the' other 
day invited two sportsmen to Northport to shoot on the 
Wyandanch preserves; he did this without any authority, 
and got the shooters into trouble. The rest of the story is 
told in the subjoined letters, written by Gen. Wingate. 
New York, Dec. 13.— Messrs. George W. Burr and C. 
E. Robinson, Northport, Long Isalnd. Gentlemen : Your 
letter of the nth inst. to the Wyandanch Club, tendering 
an apology to it for shooting upon its grounds on Nov. 
23, and inclosing $50, the amount of the fine to which you 
would have been subjected if legal proceedings had been 
instituted against you (as was contemplated by the club) 
has been referred to me as chairman of its Committee on 
the Enforcement of the Game Law. 
I desire to assue you, on behalf of the members of the 
club, that they consider your action in the matter to be 
both frank and manly, and accept your apologies in the 
same spirit in which they are tendered. There is no 
disposition on the part of the club to persecute anybody. 
There has, however, been so much unauthorized shooting 
upon the grounds leased by the club that it has been com- 
pelled to decide to prosecute all violators of the law ; 
otherwise, the rights for which it pays a very considerable 
sum annually to the farmers are thrown away. The mat- 
ter in your case was one of principle, and as the principle 
has been fully established by the course you have taken, 
the club accepts your letter as settling the entire matter, and 
to meet it in the same spirit in which it was written, -it 
has this day forwarded to the. Overseer of the Poor of 
Smithtown the $50 in question, to be devoted to a Christ- 
mas dinner and the general benefit of the poor in his 
charge. - Very truly yours, 
Geo. W. Wingate, 
Chairman Law Committee. 
New York, Dec. 13.— Overseer of the Poor, Smith- 
town, L. I. Dear Sir : The Wyandanch Club was about 
to institute proceedings for the prosecution of Messrs. 
George W. Burr and C. E. Robinson, of Northporjt, for 
shooting quail on its grounds on Nov. 23 in violation of 
the game law, and I Avas appointed chairman of a com- 
mittee to conduct this prosecution and that of other 
persons who have trespassed upon the property of the 
club. Messrs. Burr and Robinson have in a very manly 
manner written to the club inclosing $25 each, the amount 
of the fine to which they would have been subjected if 
the matter had been taken into court, and tendering their 
apologies for their conduct, and which letter has been 
accepted by the club as full reparation. The club pro- 
posed to institute these proceedings as a matter of prin- 
ciple, and not for the purpose of persecuting anybody. 
Neither do the members desire to use for their own benefit 
the money which these gentlemen have contributed. 
It has therefore been decided to devote the $50 in ques- 
tion for the benefit of the poor of Smithtown who are in 
your charge. I inclose check of the club for that amount 
and would ask that you will expend as much of it as you 
think proper to giving the town poor a good Christmas 
dinner, and the balance; if any. for their general benefit. 
Yours truly, 
Geo. W. Wingate, 
for Wyandanch Club. 
Mt. Laniet^s Game Preserve* 
Mr. Chas. D. Lanier, of this city, has purchased the 
Fowler game preserve at Moodus, Conn. It consists of 
2,000 acres, and includes a meadow with good duck shoot- 
ing, and uplands stocked with pheasants, partridges an^ 
quail, ?ind several trout streaips ^nd poinds, 
, • ■ . , - . rill-. H-..^ f}\.,i^'t 
The Maine Non-Resident Tax. 
Boston, Mass., Dec. is— Editor Forest and Stream: 
The article in Forest and Stream of Dec. 14 on the above 
subject cannot fail to be of interest to the sportsman who 
journeys to the Maine woods annually. As one who is 
no novice in big-gam c hmiting in Maine, New Brunswick, 
Quebec and Nova Scotia, I respectfully beg to give For- 
est and Stream my views on the subject. I do not hesi- 
tate to assert that the vast majority of fellow sportsmen 
view the matter in the same light. 
At the meeting of the Maine Sportsmen's Fish and 
Game Association to be held at Bangor on Jan. 7, when 
the proposed non-resident tax will come up for con- 
sideration, it- would seem advisable that in looking after 
the best interests of the State of Maine, the Association 
should not lose sight of the fact that the non-resident 
sportsmen, as directly interested parties, have a voice in 
the matter. 
It is an undeniable fact that Maine's non-resident 
hunters pay dearly for their experience. _ This, without 
being obliged to pay the proposed non-resident tax. 
"Would not the taxing of non-residents a reasonable 
fee for the hunting of large game be a just and wise 
policy to adopt?" 
The game laws of Maine make it compulsory for the 
hunter to engage the services of a registered guide in 
order to hunt and camp. He is obliged to pay for guid- 
ing service double the rates obtainable in Quebec or 
Nova Scotia. In the majority of cases the hunter, in 
order to get game, will be compelled to pay extras and 
tips that put the Canadian license fees into shade. 
In all probability the Maine Sportsmen's Fish and Game 
Association is not thoroughly familiar with the average 
expense incurred by the non-resident hunter. 
It is clearly evident to those who foot the bills that the 
hunter is called upon to pay a good price for the value he 
receives, and in a great many cases is asked exorbitant 
figures. 
UrPder these circumstances the proposed non-resident 
tax would seem unjust, unless offset by material reduc- 
tions in other directions. 
A tax on top of the expenses now connected with a 
trip to Maine is surely to have one effect, that of driving 
hunters to Canadian territories, or do the next best thing, 
read Forest and Stream at home and thus deprive the 
State of Maine of a good share of the $15,000,000 referred 
to by your correspondent. 
Taking it all in all, there is something decidedly mis- 
leading in your correspondent's article. The raising of 
funds for warden service in order to protect fish and 
game would seem good policy, as would also be the 
passage of a law forbidding the carrying of firearms into 
the unincorporated portions of the State during close 
season. 
Your correspondent does not tell us who is to blame for 
the state of affairs calling for these remedies. Those im- 
familiar with the situation would infer that it is_ the non- 
resident hunter. We all know from home experience that 
a resident hunter can and is likely to do more harm in a 
day than a score of non-residents will do in a week. 
Moreover, in view of the fact that the non-resident big- 
game hunter is not likely to spend his time and rnoney in 
Maine dtrring close season, and that, when he is to be 
found there during open season, he is always in charge 
of a resident registered guide, it would seem further proof 
that whatever violations of the law, if such are com- 
mitted, are traceable directly to residents. 
The Tracy incident related on folio 471, Forest and 
Stream, is but one of a number of similar cases that have 
come under- the writer's observation from time to time, A 
good remedy for decreasing game in Maine is to protect 
the game by passing a law forbidding Maine guides to 
carry firearms while guiding. It wotild be well to follow 
New Brunswick's example. 
Considering that it is not just to tax non-residents for 
warden service, inasmuch as residents create the neces- 
sity for such ; considering, furthermore, that if taxing the 
non-resident were desirable it would seem contrary to 
common sense to tax the big-game hunter and allow the 
fisherman to escape, when the care and propagation of 
fish is one of the chief issues, it would seem advisable 
that the Maine Sportsmen's Fish and Game Association 
leave "well enough alone" or devise other means. 
F. J. SCHUSSELL. 
Newfotttidland Ttophies. 
Irving C. Treat, of Clapp & Treat, has at their store, 
says the Hartford Courant, two fine heads of caribou, 
trophies of a hunt in the wild parts of Newfoundland, 
where Mr. Treat and A. W. Comstock, treasurer of Corn- 
stock, Cheney & Co., of Ivoryton, spent some interesting 
days last September. They went by rail from here to 
Cape Breton Island, and then crossed by boat to Port aux 
Basques, on the southwestern end of Newfoundland, near 
. Cape Ray, where the cable crosses. At Port aux Basques 
they went on toward the northeast by the Newfoundland 
Railroad. The map of this road is especially interesting 
from the fact that it is well sprinkled with stations whose 
names are printed in large black letters. Mr. Treat says 
that the only place to find these stations is the company's 
map. They are not to be found along the line of the 
road, and are not even marked by the presence of a 
shack that might be called a stopping place. It is just 
bushes and trees and a wilderness through which the 
train passes without a suggestion of stopping. 
The sportsmen went on the railroad to Bay of Island's. 
At Bay of Islands they stopped off and secured guides 
and a dory, which was loaded on the cars and carried 
along to Deer Lake. From Deer Lake they went to 
Nicholasville. This flourishing community consists of 
the homes of Old Man Nicholas. Young Nicholas, his son, 
and one other settler. This third resident was irrepres- 
sibly happy this year in having raised 250 barrels of 
potatoes, which made him a rich man thereabouts. The 
younger Nicholas is a devoted hunter, and this year he 
succeeded in capturing alive a dozen caribou calves, 
which have since been shipped to the Bronx Zoological 
Gardens, belonging to New York. They are safe there 
from hunters or famine. Nicholasville is on the Humber 
River, and the hunters made their way up the river to 
the Big Falls, 
Th? riYfif '^liS jQwei' thau ever known before at that 
