fifty yeats of mingling with Maine lumbermen I have 
but twice eaten of venison in a lumber camp, and never 
held any reason to believe the stories so often told in the 
p.-fjjers of tiie slaughter of game by them. While no 
doubt they do kill some in legal season, this they have as 
much right to do as the visiting sportsmen. 
As all the teams were reported to have passed out, I 
had no choice but to continue my journey from Chesun- 
ccok on foot. While bathing my ankle in cold water in 
the stable, Mr. Walker came in and saw it and said he 
would rather board me for a week for nothing than have 
mc walk on such a foot But I had only Hobson's choice, 
so I started at about seven in the morning, and about 
noon reached Joe Morris's, eleven miles distant. 
At Joe Morris's I saw an individual dressed in white 
overalls and three red shirts so ragged that his skin 
showed through them, who announced that he was old 
Oliver Graffum of Oldtown, and nobody else and that he 
was going to drive for Hen Soper ; he had got live dollars to 
get drunk on and he was going to do it. He had been 
trying to ride a yearling in the door-yard, and having 
been thrown, his tangled mass of hair was full of chips 
and sticks. On being told when he applied for another 
drink that he had had enough and could have no more, 
he held on to the counter and began to recite : 
"We read in the fable, 
The mouse he was able 
Ly gnawing continual 
The lion to free. 
So at the first trial 
Wc'W lake no denial — 
So is'ahum give us another drink." 
On being again refused, he steadied hirnself with a 
chair on each side and in a soft musical voice repeated: 
"Wisdom's ways are ways of pleasnntness, and all her 
paths are peace. Because \ have called and ye have not 
harkcned. and stretched forth my hand and no man re- 
garded, therefore T will latigh at your calamity and mock 
when your fear comet h." lie hid got thus far when, 
fetching a sudden lurch, he and his two chairs landed in 
one corner of the room, bringing his scripture recitation 
to a close. 
It was getting to be two in the afternoon, and as no 
tole team hrul arrived, T resumed my painful journey for 
the Grant Fann. ten miles away, having first exchanged 
my moose shiuks for the boots which I had left at 
Tvlorris's on the way up. On trying to put them on I 
found my ankle so swollen that it .was with great diffi- 
culty that it cotdd be done. When I tried to walk I had 
mostly to put my left foot forward and draw the other up 
to it. I soon began to realize just how a bear must feel 
v/hen traveling with a trap on his foot and drawing a 
clog after him. 
• It was near sunset and I had got but about five mdes, 
having made only about a mile an hour, when I was 
agreeably surprised by being overtaken by one of the 
hist, if not actually the last, team of the season. This 
was a load of spreads and cooking tools belonging to 
Spalding and Oaks of Oldtown. The driver, a young 
man about seventeen years old, was Charlie Walker, 
son of the proprietor of a hotel at Greenville. He very 
willingly took me on, and we were not long in reaching 
the Grant Farm. Here all was changed from what it was 
when I was going in. In the short time since I passed 
all the scores of teams and hundreds of men in the 
vicinity had gone out of the woods, and the only guest 
besides ourselves was a sick man who had been left be- 
hind and whom we took with us on the team in the 
morning. 
The next moning the sloshy roads had frozen, a hard 
crust had formed, and we started early. As there was no 
possibility of getting out by the way of Katahdin Iron 
Works, where my overcoat was, I accepted Mr. Walker's 
offer to take me out to Greenville by way of Lily Bay. 
While at this season in the vicinity of Bangor par- 
tridges were drumming, here, as the snow covered all 
the logs, the old males were amusing themselves by strut- 
ting around with spread tails, dragging their wings and 
admiring themselves. In the early part of the forenoon 
we saw two in different places thus employed, and I cut 
the heads off from both with my rifle without leaving 
the sled. The neck-ruffs of both had bright green 
meallic lustre different from the dead color at other 
seasons. To show the scarcity of small game in Maine, I 
will say that, with the exception of some Canada jays 
and crossbills, I saw nothing but five ruffed grouse and 
one Canada grouse on the whole trip, and I did not see 
the track of a deer nor hear of one having been seen by 
anybody. 1 heard no case of a caribou having been seen 
but that shot by Billings. At that date there were posi- 
tively no deer north of Katahdin. The deer have come 
into that country of late years. 
It was a lovely April morning, and as we had a Hght 
load we made good progress till it began to thaw. At 
Lily Bay we stopped for a few minutes at the Lily Bay 
shanty kept by Deacon Ford. Here we were told that 
getting on the ice at that time of the day would be rather 
risky. We soon came to a cove where the road led 
directly across a lauding of logs which were now floating 
in about two feet of water. Over these the horses had 
tC struggle and flounder, the logs rolling up under them 
at every step; but finally we got out on solid ice. 
We had not gone far before I saw black mud on the 
ice ahead and told Walker that we would better turn 
to one side, as I thought a team had been through the 
ice there. Seeing that he was determined to keep the 
road, I jumped off, taking my rifle and belongings, and 
the sick man followed iny example. We were hardly off 
before both horses went through, followed by the sled, 
only the hinder end of which remained upon the ice. 
There was a skid lying close by, which had doubtless 
been used by the team which had been in before us. 
Seizing this, "l ran it through the hind starts of the sled, 
thus preventing it going in entirely. Walker, with the 
help of the sick man, who proved to be a good man with 
horses, unbuckled the harness, thus freeing the horses from 
the .sled, which, being released, stood almost perpendicu- 
lar; when drawn out the end of the pole was cn\'ered 
with black mud. A rein was put around the neck of one 
horse and he was choked, to lloat him out. The same was 
stTCcessfnlly tried with his mate. Having noticed a tackle 
and fall on the landing of logs we had passed over, I 
went back and got it, and, reaving it through the hind 
FO HE ST • AK D _STRE AM. 
starts of the sled and attaching the hofses, the sled was 
soon pulled out on the ice, with streams of water running 
from the spreads and cooking tools. As the sled had 
side-boards and the load was covered with canvas lashed 
on there was nothing lost. 
Proceeding on our way we soon came to the narrow 
passage between Sugar Island and a point of the main 
land. Here was quite a space of open water on each 
side of the road, approaching the road in the shape of 
a V until the two points were not over forty yards apart. 
All the possibility of passing depended upon the bridge 
of snow which had been building up all winter as a road- 
bed being solid enough to hold. I went out only a few 
steps on each side and trying the ice with an ax found it 
was all porous, and I could easily cut through it with a 
few clips. In the morning when frozen this would be 
safe enough, but at this time of day it was risky. We 
all got off the sled, and, by walking the team, managed 
to cross without accident. It was now the ninth of April. 
Out on the lake the ice was still solid and would probably 
be safe for ten or fifteen days longer. 
We reached Greenville at about two o'clock. Only 
two days before I had passed through country where the 
snow was five feet deep. Here at Greenville there was 
only eight to ten inches of sloshy snow. I stopped at the 
hotel over night, and took an open stage next day for 
Newport. The driver, William Blethen, w-as kind 
enough to provide me with an overcoat. I will say that 
only a few months afterwards Mr. Blethen was driving 
stage for Ben Halliday on the Overland. The snow 
%vhich gradually lessened soon failed entirely, and W2 
hauled into Dexter on bare ground, where we shifted 
to wheels to get to Newport. Reaching Bangor by rail 
I found boys playing ball in the streets and the steamer 
from Boston just arriving on her first trip. 
^^Yellowstone*' Kelly. 
Very many of our readers will remember Capt. Luther 
Sage Kelly, known to the older generation of western 
men as Yellowstone Kelly, trapper, hunter and scout, for 
a dozen years or thereabouts, during the later wars on the 
northern plains. In campaigns under Gen. Miles and 
other military commanders, Capt. Kelly took a prominent 
part in the fighting with the Sioux and Cheyennes in 
Montana, and he has contributed to Forest and Stream 
many stirring tales of adventure in the wars between 
1870 and 1880. 
Capt. Kelly enlisted in the Spanish war, and became a 
captain in one of the volunteer regiments.^ When this 
v.'as mustered out, a commission was given him in another 
regiment, and he went with his command to the Philip- 
pine Islands. After a term of service there his regiment 
was again mustered out, but Capt. Kelly's administration 
of the district of which he had been in charge had been 
so successful that he was shortly afterward appointed 
Provincial Treasurer of the town of Surigao in the 
island of Mindanao. 
In the papers of March 25, last, appeared dispatches 
telling of the capture of this town by bandits, and explain- 
ing what happened there. The extracts which we give 
froin these dispatches show that Capt. Kelly is still a 
fighter, and possesses the determination which of old 
m.ade him so well known and so highly thought of on the 
western plains. 
A Washington dispatch to the New York Sun, under 
date of March 24, reports : A cable dispatch was received 
at the War Department this afternoon from Gov. Taft an- 
nouncing that Surigao, the capital of Surigao Province 
in the island of Mindanao, which was captured by 
ladrones on Sunday, has been relieved. The following is 
Gov. Taft's dispatch: 
"Affair at Surigao turns out to be escape of ten 
prisoners, sentenced to long terms for ladronism, who, 
v/ith sixty or eighty of their fellows, returned to Surigao 
and succeeded in surprising and rushing the constabulary 
barracks, obtaining constabulaiy arms and ammunition, 
killing Constabulary Inspector Clark, and thus taking 
command of the town. Nine Americans, including two 
women, retreated to the Provincial building, where, under 
the direction of Luther S. Kelly, Provincial Treasut;er, 
formerly Captain of Volunteers, and still earlier an Indian 
scout known as 'Yellowstone Kelly,' they barricaded the 
building against the attacking party. 
"The Americans were armed with only a few shotguns 
and were short of ammunition, but maintained their de- 
fense against the ladrones, refusing to yield to an ulti- 
matum, demanding the guns, the reply of Kelly being that 
they would not give up a single gun and would kill on 
sight any ladrone within range. Assistant Chief Taylor 
arrived at Surigao with a constabulary force about eigh- 
teen hours after the attack. On his approach the ladrones 
disappeared and columns are now following thein. 
"Surigao is in extreme northeast Mindanao; is so far 
removed that I have concluded to call upon George W. 
Davis to put the military in command with the hope that 
by a large force the ladrones and their guns may be cap- 
tured and they may be prosecuted for murder and 
ladronism. 
"So far as advised Capt. Clark is the only American 
killed. The cable from Surigao landed near the Provin- 
cial building in which the Americans took refuge and they 
were thus able to communicate with the military com- 
mander at Iligan and with constabulary headquarters at 
Cebu. Two constabulary inspectors were absent from 
Surigao in Cebu, where they were passing their examina- 
tions for promotion. Surigao had been regarded as a 
quiet province since the capture and sentence of the 
ladrones, but their escape led to the difficulty." 
Moon Sigfiis fot Anglefs* 
Spokane, Washington, March ig.— Editor Forest^ and 
Stream: Would you please inform a reader as to sign— 
or signs— of the moon supposed to be or regarded 
by successful fishermen as being the best or most favor- 
able time to go fishing. Some amateurs, like myself, say 
when the sign is in the knee, or Capricornus; others say 
in the head, or Aries. Others again say the sign of the 
neck, or Taurus. From my own experience I do not 
regard this latter sign as favorable. M. E. D. 
— ^ — 
How to Get Skunks. 
The short essay printed below is an extract from a pri- 
vate letter feceived by our Philadelphia correspondent, 
"Ocean," from a very successful amateur trapper in Ver- 
mont. The writer is evidently a man of good nerve. He 
says : 
You want to know how I kill skunks without getting 
scented, I put on an old suit, so if I do get a little dose it 
won't hurt anything. I have an old duck coat with big 
pockets on the inside which I have used for a trapping 
coat for a number of years. 
The skunk seldom goes out in the daytime, but as soon 
as it gets dark he begins to prowl. They live mostly on 
crickets and grasshoppers, and in the fall they are very 
fat. Often I have found it an inch thick on the back in 
skinning them. If pains are taken in skinning not to 
touch it with the hands, this oil, when tried out like lard, 
is the best thing for a cold or croup I know of — used ex- 
ternally, of course. 
As the skunk lives in woodchuck holes in the meadows 
and pastures, I can always tell where to -find them, for 
they make little holes in the dirt with the nose which 
look very much as if someone had poked the ground witii 
a cane. Wherever the skunk makes one of these holes, hv 
gets a cricket, which in the fall, as the ground gets cold, 
burrow under the grass roots. The fox digs for crickets, 
too, but as he digs with his paws the hole is somewhat 
different in shape. 
A moonlight night with the wind in the south I have 
found the best to hunt them. I generally carry a lanterti, 
so that I can skin them at once and save lugging them 
around. I cut a stick from a sapling about the size of a 
broomhandle and about six feet long. Armed with this 
I take the warpath through the fields, keeping a sharp 
lookout for any black spots that seem to move. 
The skunk is generally busy looking for grub, and as 
soon as I spy him, I run right at him. You have to be 
quick, not because the skunk will run, for they can't run 
very fast, but the sudden approach scares them so they 
will face you with hair bristling on end, just as a hen will 
when you try to catch one of her young. This is the timo 
to strike, and one good blow on the head generally does 
for them, but woe to the hunter who foozles this first 
blow, as the golfer says. 
when I first tried trapping, I used to set my traps in 
woodchuck holes, and as a skunk will explore every one 
of these holes, I used to get quite a lot. Since then I have 
found a better way. When I find a likely place to set, I 
dig a hole at the foot of a stump or stone, about as big 
as your hand, back under the roots about six inches. I 
stick a piece of any kind of meat or a rotten egg — any- 
thing that smells rank — into the hole; then set the trap 
and stake it, covering it with a sprinkling of fresh dirt. 
The first skunk that comes along will walk into the trap, 
and he will scent the place so that no more bait is needed 
to draw them. In this way I have got six or seven in 
one place. 
In killing a skunk in a trap you must not run up to 
them as you do hunting them. Go up to him carefully, 
and as long as you do not make any quick motion you are 
all right. Raise the club carefully and slowly and then 
strike as quick as you can. 
Well, I have told all I know about the skunk industry. 
Some time I will tell you how we trap for foxes — ground 
trapping. Almost anyone can learn to catch them in 
water, but it takes a smart chap to catch them in the 
ground. 
The Wood Rat. 
In the natural history coming under my observ?tion T 
have not seen anything concerning the wood rat. It may 
be that the rodent is t'oo common to attract special atten- 
tion, but I am inclined to believe that, if he is widely dis- 
tributed, he is rarely observed. 
In Northern California, both in the foothills and higher 
up in the motmtains, those who observe closely may often 
see the residences of the wood rat, though the animal 
itself is not often conspicuous. 
The nests I have seen have usually been in thickets of 
chaparrel or greasewood where the bushes were dead and 
dry. In such places the wood rat obtains plenty of ma - 
terial for the construction of its nest. It gathers twigs 
from a foot to three in length and from the size of a 
pencil in diameter, to an inch or more. These, together 
with small pieces of bark and a few leaves will be found 
heaped from the ground up well into the branches_ of 
some thick clump of bushes. If there is a log convenient 
the rat will often make use of it for one side of his 
house. The twigs are often heaped to the height of three 
or four feet from the ground, usually resembling a pile of 
driftwood with the exception that the pile is seldom 
found near overflowed ground. 
About two years ago I became interested in a pair of 
vvood rats that seized upon and possessed themselves of 
my wood house for a habitation. The house is thirty 
feet long and one end of it used for a work bench, repair 
shop and tool house. The other end is used mainly for 
storing dry kindling wood and small stove wood. The 
rats moved in when I was away for a period, and the pair 
found a good supply of dry pine sticks a foot to sixteen 
inches in length split from inch boards. These were of 
%arious widths from one to five inches, and there were a 
number of heavy sticks of scantling in a corner. With 
notable industry the rats had piled the small sticks into 
a fairly regular pyramid, using the heSiVy pieces they 
could not move for foundation and frame, adapting their 
architecture to the conditions of the location with re- 
markable ingenuity. 
Their architecture fitted in with the landscape in the 
woodhouse so well that it was some time before I noticed 
that the kindling wood was methodically placed. As wet 
weather came and the kindling was needed, I frequently 
took an armful into the house, without realizing that 1 
was taking gargoyles and cornices from a private resi- 
dence. 
In removing the sticks I often pulled down a quantity 
of the pile in selecting. After doing this for some days I 
