&8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
A~NovfceV:First' Quail. ^§ 
On Thursday afternoon, Dec. s, I boarded the 3:34 
train at East New York bound for East Quogue, where 
1 had secured the services of Mr. Harry Coster as guide 
tor a couple of days' quail shooting; as I had never shot 
at quail before, my feelings were rather unsettled at the 
prospect m view. 
t After a journey of about three hours I finally arrived 
just as the family were at their evening meal. I found 
Mr. Coster to be a young man of twenty years, verv 
sociable and withal a good sportsman. 
We were out by 8 o'clock Friday morning ,and started 
to drive to Good Ground, as Mr. Coster knew of some 
nice coveys there. About 200 yards from the house we 
passed over a bridge, and there in the creek sat a broad- 
bill. He took flight and pitched about 200 yards down 
stream I alighted from the wagon, slipped in some -No. 
As and started off to stalk him. Three medium sized 
pependge trees aided me in getting within about 55 yards 
ot him; I then stepped into the open and had just taken 
two paces when he jumped, only to drop back an instant 
truly ^charge of my rifle barrel. A good omen, 
Arriving at Good Ground, we hunted several likelv 
places without success. The guide returned for the rig 
while the dog Sport (a liver-colored pointer eight years 
old and weighing about 70 pounds), and I continued 
along the edge of the woods. Mr. Coster, by a short cut 
got ahead of us about 25 yards, when, whir! up rose a 
bevy of probably fifteen just at the edge of the woods. I 
thought at first that they were robins, but upon hearing 
Mr. Costers exclamation, immediately realized my mis- 
take, and managed to cripple one which had curved from 
the woods when he flushed, and was on the point of 
disappearing over the tree tops. He toppled over and we 
hastened m to secure him, Sport pointed, and the bird 
started to run. We started to pursue him. intending to 
capture him without firing, when, presto ! he took flight 
and escaped, followed by a charge of No. 7H's from 
my gun We did not succeed in finding him again, so 
started further m the woods to look up the rest We 
had just started when a partridge jumped from under a 
pine, and was away like a flash, followed by an ineffectual 
shot from each gun. We hunted that woods about two 
hours and Mr. Coster killed one quail, although we each 
had three shots. 
We then drove about a half-mile further, and tying the 
horse, started across a pasture to the woods. Passing 
through some scrub pines into a stubble, I flushed a pair 
almost under my feet. I killed my bird, which quartered 
to the left, but Mr. Coster missed his, a right quarterer. 
He marked it down, but we failed to locate it. You can 
imagine my feelings when I gathered in my first quail, a 
fine cock weighing 7% ounces. As it was then after 1 
0 clock, we started home for dinner. 
After dinner we walked north about a half-mile, and a 
large covey flushed wild about 150 yards away in the 
center of a wheat stubble. We followed them "into the 
woods, and had about seven shots, each without Tesult ' 
excepting a handful of feathers, which I knocked from 
one of the lively fellows as he passed between two pines. 
The woods were exceedingly dense, which made onlv 
quick snap-shooting possible. 
Just about dusk I succeeded in killing a single bird 
making our total three quail for the day. 
With an earlier start on Saturdav we went north, and 
after a half-mile walk along the road turned to the right 
along a creek, hoping' for a shot at a black duck. We 
then hunted a wide territory without finding a bird, came 
back to the road, crossed over and hunted over a couple of ' 
miles with the same result. Things looked decidedly 
gloomy as we came back to the road. Walk- 
ing along the road we again came to the creek, 
and there, right in the highway, found fresh tracks 
in the snow. Putting the dog to work, he took us into 
the -low ground by the creek, then lost the trail and 
wandered aimlessly about, the guide going one way and 
1 another. The guide finally flushed them and killed with 
his first gun. but waited too long for the second, although 
he centered his bird. Sport then pointed a single bird, 
which flushed before I came up, and Mr. Coster wing 
broke it. It fell among a lot of thorns in a marshy 
place, and we were unable to find it. 
We then followed the rest of the covey across the 
road into the woods, and although we put up two, were 
unable to secure a shot on account of density of the 
thickets. We recrossed the road and started toward a 
clump of large pines, where a covey lived, as the guide 
put it. Sure enough, after hunting half-way around it 
Sport came to a dead stop at the foot of a tall pine. We 
waited a full minute enjoying the point, and the antics 
of old_ Sport, whose fore feet were on lower ground than 
his tail end. and caused him to change his position, but 
without breaking his point. I then stepped forward, when, 
with a rush and a roar, up jumped a covey of eight or 
nine. I had a good chance for a double, but only killed 
with the left. Mr. Coster only secured one shot, but 
killed his bird. I marked down a pair of birds in an 
adjoining "field, and started to find them. One jumped 
from under my feet and whirled back for the woods. I 
missed with the right, but with the report of the left he 
came down like a rag, while a bunch of feathers floated 
away to leeward. 
We failed to find the other, and started to look up one 
which Mr. Coster had marked down in a meadow. He 
flushed him. missed with his right, and shot his left just 
as I dropped the quail in the woods. 
We discovered a large opossum in the woods, which 
weighed about 12 pounds, and killed' it, then left the rest 
of the quail for "seed" and went to dinner. 
After dinner we went north again, and I missed one 
which T did not see rise, but just chanced to see as it was 
disappearing. After some time Sport again pointed in the 
wheat stubble where the covey had flushed the night be- 
fore, and Mr. Coster killed the bird. 
We then went down by the creek, hoping to find the 
survivors of the morning passing over the creek. We 
found two single birds among some dense scrub pines, but 
did not get a shot. It was now rapidly growing dark, and 
we turned toward home. Shortly after Sport_ "made 
game" at the base of a short, wide-spreading pine, but 
before he located them for a point they flushed. We . 
«ach secured a single shot and bagged our bird, making a 
total of eight for the day and eleven for two days, which 
is considered a fair bag for this part of the country al- 
though more birds are often killed in two days' shooting. 
Of these oirds I killed six for a total of twenty shots 
With this result on my first trip as a novice I am quite 
well content. 
This is a good quail country, with lots of birds, as their 
tracks m the snow attested, but we did not seem to be 
very fortunate in locating them. 
I have only words of praise for old Sport, who, in 
spite of his weight and years and sore toes, did slow but 
positive work, for he rarely made a false point and never 
flushed once. I cheerfully recommend Mr. Harry Coster 
as a young man who will do his best to secure game for 
his patrons. 
The weights of six of these quail were: One 7^ 
ounces, one 7 ounces, both males, and four females &A 
ounces each. W. H. Emmons. 
Hunting Deer in Upper Michigan. 
Hartfoed, Mich.— On Nov. 6 Stephen Stowe, of Hart- 
ford, with Dr. Bope and Fred Kelly, of Lawrence, left 
Hartford via the Pere Marquette Railway at 1 145 P. M. 
for Baraga county to hunt deer. They arrived at Nestoria 
the next day; the trainmen got orders to let them off at 
Tioga, four miles from Nestoria, so the train stopped 
at Tioga, where the only thing to designate a station was a 
cedar post with a board nailed upon it with "Tioga" 
painted upon it in large letters. They soon had their tent 
up within fifty yards of the railroad; the tent was a 10 x 
12 with 3-foot side wall. There was about 6 inches of 
snow upon the ground. They put up their stove and got 
nicely settled by dark. The next morning bright and 
early they were out for deer; but after hunting all day 
day they concluded that the day's sport consisted in get- 
ting very tired. They had a good bed, for they had 
found a small stack of marsh hay and had appropriated 
enough to make them comfortable. Here Dr. Bope had 
his first mishap while cutting out some of the hay from 
the stack with a hatchet — he cut a 4-inch gash in his new 
rubber boot. He enjoyed at least one wet foot during- 
the entire time, and at one time a fairly good "plunge 
bath." The Doctor was fated to have trouble. The next 
morning while splitting kindling for a fire, a stick 'flew up 
and took a piece of skin about the size. of a quarter off his 
nose. 
The second day Kelly shot a fine buck within twenty- 
five rods of the tent, it being his first deer. Bope heard 
him shoot, and ran up, wanting to stick the deer with his 
fine new hunting knife, which he had bought in Chicago 
on_ the fray to the north. Kelly let him try his new 
knife. After two or three attempts they failed to "draw 
blood," and the professional man gave it up. The two 
started to find Stowe. the experienced hunter of the party, 
and they thought he could bleed the deer. They took his 
track at a lively trot and soon came up to Stowe and told 
him their trouble. He told them the deer had probably 
bled internally, and so it proved. The ball had gone 
through its lungs and all the blood was inside. They 
soon had him hung up and they were off again, but got no 
more deer that day, "and although hungry for venison, 
Kelly did not want to cut into so fine n specimen, but 
wanted to take it home. Stowe said. . "Never mind, I'll 
kill one to eat." 
The next morning very early they were off, and hunted 
until about 3 o'clock, and Stowe had got back to within 
eightv or_ a hundred rods of the tent when he saw and 
killed a nice fat fawn. But he was too tired to drag it in 
to camp. He went on to the camp, where he found Kelly 
and Bope, who had been in long enough to be rested, and 
told them thatjf they would go and get it thev would 
have some venison for supper. They soon had it at the 
tent, and a portion of it cooking. It was very fat, and 
the fumes of roasting venison soon delighted the camp 
with its appetizing odor. 
Saturdav brought a couple of land-lookers, here called 
"cruisers." They put up their tent close bv ours, and 
we all went out Sundav morning. Kelly and Stowe got in 
about dark, but no Bope put in an apoearance. The 
cruisers came over and said they had heard a gun and two 
sharp whistles. Kelly went out, took a short look for 
Bope, and fired his gun, but heard nothing. We made 
up our minds he was surelv lost, so we all went outside 
and fired several shots, and after a short time we heard 
a shot in reply, but we could not agree in the direction 
from which it came. Kelly went down the railroad in 
one direction, and the rest of us went the oppopsite way. 
We had planned signals with our whistles so we could 
communicate and blew our whistles, but got no response. 
Then we took our lantern and compass and with Stowe 
leading in the direction from which he thought the sound 
of the shot came, we entered a large cedar swamp, and on 
a small island we found Bope corralled. He had at- 
tempted to get out of the swamo. but had only madr a 
circuit of the island. He had tried to start a fire, but his 
matches were wet, and he had shot awav all of hi? 
cartridges but one, which he had kept for case of need. 
About 8 o'clock we got him back to camp. He said he had 
often been glad to see folks, but he had never before 
seen friends who looked quite so good to him as did 
Stowe and Kelly that night. 
Monday we got our second fawn, which Stowe, stand- 
ing on the railroad, shot at six times to kill with a . 45-00. 
He counted the rails, and it was sixty-seven lengths of 
T rails from where he stood to the olace where the deer 
was when he hit it, which would be about 350 yards. 
Wednesda}' we killed two fine bucks with very nice 
heads. Thursday another fawn was added to our string. 
All these deer were killed within a radius of two miles 
taking the camp for the center. The next day we visited 
a beaver dam, where all the work was fresh. We found 
where they had cut down popnles 6 inches in diameter and 
then cut them off in sticks of about a feet in length and 
dragged them through the snow to the creek, making a 
track in the snow that looked like the track made by 
dragging a deer through the snow. We brought some of 
the sticks home with us, and also some of the chips which 
were made in the cutting, showing that the beaver exer- 
cises the same judgment that a human does in chooping, 
cutting' in from both ways and then taking the chip out 
with his teeth. 
On Monday we got two more deer in a rolling, burned 
district which we were crossing, and when we were not 
on the lookout for deer. Stowe said he was walking along 
[Jan. 11, 1904 
hastily to get across, when he was startled by the si 
of a deer close by him. Turning in the direction of 
sound, he saw a large doe's head. She was looking 
him from over a log and had no doubt scented him. , 
had only the head and the upper part of the neck id 
mark the rest of the body being hidden by the log. | 
fell dead, and as she fell a large buck rose up out 
bed near her and stood looking in wonder at his fa! 
mate, with his side toward Stowe. We send you 
bullet, which was found in the hide on the further side 
this fine fellow when he was dressed; you can ju< 
something of the force of the shot by the condition of 
bullet. And now having killed our eight deer, we m 
up our minds we would go home. 
To show how the railways wait upon the hunters 
northern Michigan, we call attention to the fact that ei 
day of our stay the section men carried our mail to 3 
from the post office for us. The agent at Nestoria v 
asked to have the 3:40 freight stop and take on 
venison, with merely a request that we be on hand 
help load it. They notified u s that the passenger trn 
which came through an hour later, would stop for us. 
sent our deer home via the Duluth & South Shore 
Michigan Central, while we returned by Chicago. 
Mr. Stowe is the champion deer hunter of this cc 
munity, and has for several seasons hunted in the Up- 
Peninsula. He has never hunted with a guide. . He si 
he would as soon hire a man to guide him in court? 
and where to find one's sweetheart as to help him fin> 
deer and tell him how to kill it. He uses a .45-00 W 
Chester, and has never lost a deer that he has hit witl 
yet. He says there were very few hunters in the wo« 
this fall, not nearly so many as last year, and tha- 
mile from the railroads you will find no hunter's trac 
He says he thinks the deer are increasing in number. 
Sullivan Cook! 
The Pioneer Club Hunt. 
The great annual hunt of the father of all of the m 
western clubs came off on time, with everything pre 
tious. The weather concurred with the spirits of j 
hunters, for the sun came out from the mists of the ea 
morning and shone with that richness which is only s< 
in southern Kansas and in Italy. 
This was on November 19, last, and ready were 
hunters with their favorite rifles and ammunition to s 
to the loads of good things, tents, bedding and traili 
dogs which were already placed in the special of the 
K. & T. R. R., for their use and comfort. 
These supplies deserve more than passing notice, 
they were not of the ordinary variety or material— th< 
was absolutely nothing too good for so good a 
of fellows. 
The cook stove, a good baker, and the Sibley heat 
for tents, were easily painted red by the pine knots 
the mountains. 
The cooks were the equals of the implements and si 
plies, as proved by the pastry that followed the hot t 
cuits, hoe cake, turkey cooked in 'steen ways, and t 
famous venison loaf— any wildness of the game was tarr. 
by the bastings and the other fine arts of the ch 
Preparations were none too great, for the whole Indi 
Territory was to be captured with twenty guns. 
The chief beginning, however, was made at Joplin, M 
where the best Elk lodge rooms in the country were eas 
dislodged and forced to treat and retreat. 
The "House of Lords" was also vanquished in 
single file front face attack, but the Woman's Exchan 
at meal time stood the strain of the knife-and-fork batt 
Arkansas was unmolested through respect for its rei 
tation and the ammunition was economized for the sk 
mishing in the Cosharties and Kimichi Mountains. 
Camp located, a busy time ensued in filling tic! 
erecting log bedsteads and stocking the commissary tf 
from the contents of the wagons which had shaken the 
for thirty miles or more over rough mountain roads. 
_ It was soon found, however, that the country furnish 
ticks which filled themselves, also furnished gamy bron 
turkey and the wily deer, which continually restocked t 
emptying larder. 
The roll-call of the club showed that the followij 
members had found their way to the secluded car 
selected by Guides Reed and Henry — the Choctaw- 
friendly Indian, viz.: Captain Joe Hotchkiss, Hons. 
O. Brown and C. K. Leinbach, Sheriff Bennett. Doct 
Maser, Messrs. Don Venable, Reilley, Lonekes. Hi 
Miexell, Charley Workman, Roundtree, Steele, Rhodd 
Copeland, Smith, Alexander Schreek, the writer here 
and the (should-have-been-first-named^ caterers, Wi 
Main and Phil. Conrad. These latter were the thrice- 
diy attractions eagerly hunted for and always equal 
the occasion. No people ever lived better in camp th; 
those of this worthy club, and none ever regretted havir 
been "too late for the wagon" more than did Cols. E 
wards, Rasbach and Greene, who did not arrive till t' 
club broke camp, which occurred earlier than intende 
for the true sportsman's reason that game enough h; 
been killed. 
The score stood, seven deer and seventy-eight wi 
turkeys, beside wildcat, wolf, etc., all well tamed by tl 
trusty rifles of the sturdy huntsmen. 
Some incidents of the hunt were visits of curious Cho* 
taws and of members of other camps, who were alwa; 
well treated, except with what the former especially mo 
wanted and called "lemon," but wanted it from a bott 
of reddish hue. They doubtless referred to the extra/ 
gotten from traders and which is known itv prohibitic 
States as cold .tea, Magnolia, and Calamitv Waters, 
Stories of the finest landscape views; escapes from tcJ 
close views of bear, panther and other "varmintb." "Hq 
I got him," "How I missed him," and "Hoav I didd 
find him." were numerous and often exciting. 
This Choctaw country is rough and rugged, traverse 
by the Kimichi and Coshartie Mountains, which are intei 
sected by rapid streams of the purest water. 
Abundant grass and acorns add to make it a natur 
h~me for deer and turkey, and the addition of elk woul 
make it the grandest location for a preserve on the cont 
nent. This portion, at least, should be set aside, on alio 
ment or other disposition of the Choctaw territory t 
th t Government, for game alone. It seems good for th? 
purpose and that only, and even the forests proclaim i 
for the oaks, pine and holly are of little commercii 
