July s, igoa.} 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
7 
our sight in a moment. His cage was kept open by 
the window day and night for a week, but he never re- 
turned and, all things considered, he probably perished 
that very day of his flight. At any rate, he had ceased 
to be happy in captivity, if this word could be applied 
to the condition under which he lived — and so here is the 
foundling's epitaph: To the memory of Disconsolate 
Dick; Born 1892 — departed Juty 4, iQOi- 
Alice D. Le Plokgeon. 
Cats as Eclectic Httntets* 
In the household where I am domiciled there are four 
fine hunting cats, which range afield and bring in much 
small game. One of the four is devoted to rabbits of 
assorted sizes and ages; another takes to squirrels and 
chipimmks ; another to birds, and the fourth to moles and 
ttiice. Each has its specialtj', and neither seems to en- 
croach upon the prerogatives of the others. A fifth cat, 
^^bich is a fine black and white animal weighing fourteen 
pounds, pays some attention to frogs and grass snakes. 
He allows the little farm chicks to play about him, and 
there is one small black one which climbs all over him. 
His natural instinct seems to have been eliminated by 
force of persistent discipline, or self-restraint. 
Plainfield was once a noted place for Manx, or "rabbit 
cats," and pure white Angoras, but of these there are only 
a few cross breeds here now. They all have great spread 
of tail, say -six inches in width, when in full plume, 
Do Sqwtfels Eat Birds? 
The other morning two mated robins were making a 
great fuss in and about a large maple, darting to and 
fro and screaming. It took some time before observers 
' could discover the cause of the trouble, when at la.st a 
Ted squirrel was discovered in a crotch with a young 
robin in his mouth. An effective shower of missiles made 
him drop it, when it was discovered that the bird's 
head was eaten off. And this incident suggests that much 
of the birds' nest robbery which is attributed to jays and 
'crows, may be due to the Sciurus tribe, for 1 have several 
' times found egg shells on the ground beneath trees con- 
' taining nests, and wondered that the points of the eggs 
, were smoothly bored out instead of the large ends being 
I roughly fractured, as when the chick breaks through into 
iife and being. I thought at the time that the youngsters 
had managed to crawl out of a very small hole. The 
shell looked as if it had been blown by an oologist col- 
lector. C. H. 
Tfipod^s Snake. 
Clarksdale, Miss., June 2^.— Editor Forest _ and 
Stream: I had hoped to inclose a rude picture of Tripod's 
snake supper from a St. Louis paper, but have failed to 
•secure one. The snake is represented as coiled on a table, 
with head erect and mouth open, while, presumably, 
Tripod is poking food into his mouth on the end of a 
stick, to an accompaniment with the rattles. Another 
table shows the snake at full length, apparently in a 
cooked state, with the revelers seated around the board. 
The snake still declines to eat. Six young rats were 
placed in the box, two of which were killed from time to 
time, but not eaten. The remaining ones snuggle up 
against the snake, under some hay, and all repose to- 
gether. 
Last week I attended a meeting of the Mississippi River 
Commission at St. Louis, and had the pleasure of meet- 
ing Horace Kephart, and found him a very agreeable 
personage. Coahoma. 
^^^^ 0^ 
— — 
Proprietors of shooting resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
Moose— III 
An Expedition- to New Bmnswick. 
{Continued from page 509.) 
About. 2 o'clock Ben proposed that we go over to 
Lynch's Depot on Clearwater, nine miles west, for a few 
days. We met John Hayes and Ed Moon coming out; 
they had taken two hunters from Philadelphia over be- 
yond Clearwater to Burnt Brook. We reached the depot 
in three hours from our cabin, found a hunter there by 
the name of Quackenbusli from New York city, and his 
guide, John Scott. They had been out three weeks and 
had not seen a moose. Scott could not call. They got 
some birch bark and Ben made a horn and tooted it for 
their instruction. A moose answered it and came close 
to the house. We saw his tracks next morning down 
toward the river. 
After dinner, while watching a little barren of about 
two acres beside Lake Brook, two men carrying a long 
canoe came out of the brush. One was an Indian guide 
from Moosehead Lake region in Maine, the other. Don- 
ald McKay. Presently Mr, Rosengarten, of the Phila- 
delphia drug house of that name, came up. He and his 
partner had been moose hunting over in Maine, and not 
having success there, had come into the province and 
had brought their guides along, and then had to get 
Donald to guide the guides. This is what I referred 
to in my other letter. Ben thought there were white 
men enough in the province to do all of this work- 
without importing Indians from the States, and I quite 
agreed with him. Theii* Guides' Association will prob- 
ably look after this matter before another season opens. 
Late in the evening we had a bull coming toward the 
Uttle barren, but somebody began to swing an ax quite 
vigorously down at Rosengarten's camp near the dam 
a]id it frightened him -away. 
The next morning Ben said there were too many 
hunters coming in for that territory and that we were 
outside of our side lines anyhow, and had better go back 
to Camp Norrad. We learned afterward from Donald 
ihat Rosengarten killed a moose that day just east of 
where we liad been caUing, and three had been killed 
'ivei- on Burnt Brook the week before. On Wednesday 
morning, the 2Sth, the wind was so high that it was 
not only not safe to be out in the woods, but calling 
was out of the question. We fixed up our clothes and 
shoe packs, sharpened knives and axes, had an early din- 
ner, and when the wind died down Ed. Wilfred and I 
started for Tehoe Lake, King and Ed had come up from 
there the day before and reported having seen more 
signs than at any place they had been, but the wind 
had been so high that calling was done with great diffi- 
culty; in fact, the high winds interfered greatly with 
us during all of our hunt. 
On Thursday we drew blanks both morning and even- 
ing. It looked sometiines as if the wind would blow the 
water out of the lake, and the horn could not be heard 
any distance against it, the only direction from which 
one can hope to have a moose come close. 
The next morning we were up at S o'clock, went to the 
barren at the north end of the lake and sat down in a 
trail in the high grass. At the second sound of the 
horn the welcome grunt of a bull came from the lower 
end of the lake, he came up the ridge on the west side, 
and came out into the barren about 100 yards from where 
I sat. He made lots of noise, horned the bushes and 
came out into the open. We kept concealed, expecting 
him to come to the horn, but no amount of coaxing 
could lure him within close range. After he had gone 
we found that he was only 102 steps away, and there 
was not a tree between us. The experience with the 
bull the week before had made me too cautious. I had 
lost a shot at the first one by getting on my feet and 
looking for him, and now failed to get a shot at this 
one because T did not get up and look. It's a case 
where you are damned if you do and damned if you 
don't. Guides are not slow about offering criticims on 
what you do or do not do. and ours were no exception to 
the rule, and one should not blame them, their reputation 
is at stake and it is their stock in trade. No one wants 
to go out with a poor guide, one that has not been suc- 
cessful in piloting the hunter in his charge into good 
territory and getting shots for him. The next thing 
to a good guide is a good caller; if the two things can 
be found in the same person, it is well, but if not, give 
me the caller and I'll take chances on getting lost if 
he does not know the country, which is not likely to 
be the case. 
The next day was Saturday, the 28th. We had de- 
cided the evening before that by daylight we would be 
up at the end of the barren where we had had the bull 
out the morning before, and try to see if we could not 
induce him to repeat his part of the performance. It 
was, of course, assumed that I would not repeat my 
part. But Ed failed to get an answer. After break- 
fast we packed up and started for the cabin and got there 
in time for dinner. A mile before reaching the cabin 
we saw the tracks of two men, one had on boots or 
shoes with hobnails in the soles. We knew that none of 
our party had any such foot gear. Ed said "The Ger- 
man count must have gotten out before I expected him 
and had gone out to prospect a little." When we got to 
the cabin we found that his surmise was right. The 
Count had had an engagement with the Norrads from 
early summer for Sept. 28. Our dropping down in Fred- 
ericton and being disappointed in not getting in with 
Braithwaite's party, had led to our arrangement with 
them, as recited in my first letter, we found them open 
for the first two weeks of the hunting season, or until 
the 28th. Before leaving with us for the woods, how- 
ever, Ed arranged with his cousin, Alex McKay, to meet 
the count at Boiestown and pilot him through to the 
cabin and guide him during our stay. We found Count 
Von Armin, who is an attache of the German Legation 
at Washington, a very pleasant and agreeable gentle- 
man, and a thorough sportsman, and Alex was a prince 
of good fellows. 
The count had been hunting in the Flathead Moun- 
tains in Montana with M. P. Dunham, and had stopped 
off here to round out his trip with a moose head. He 
already had elk, sheep and good mounts. We were 
greatly interested in the account of his mountain hunt, 
but were more interested in the arrival of his grub train. 
Our cupboard was not exactly in the deplorable condi- 
tion that Mother Hubbard is said to have foufld hers 
in; but the addition of three more men who had brought 
their appetites with them for twenty-four hours to our 
already good-sized familj'', reduced our stock of some 
things rapidly. The next evening, when John Hayes' 
and Ed Moon's sled trains with the count's small amount 
of baggage and large amount of provisions stopped in 
front of the cabin door, everybody was happy, as visions 
of hot wieners flitted before our eyes. These were much 
in evidence, and were thoroughly enjoyed_ as a great 
change from bacon, w-hich had been our chief article in 
the meat line, except the few times that trout had been 
substituted as an entree. 
The count and Alex were very fortunate in calling. 
Scarcely a day passed that they did not have an answer; 
but they were not so fortunate in getting shots. They 
had come in just at the right time. There were more 
moose in our territory in the last week than in the two 
preceding weeks. The days had been quite warm, while 
the nights were generally cool; but we were told that 
it took both cool days and nights to start the game on 
the w^arpath. 
After dinner on Sunday, Ben and I decided to chance 
our luck over at our favorite ground around the Sister 
Lakes. King and Ed packed up and went down to 
Tehoe. Our parting was quite pathetic; each wished the 
other success on the morrow and reminded him that this 
Avas the last week of grace, and that something must 
be done or we would leave the woods empty handed, and 
could hardly hope to survive the jeers and gibes of our 
friends at home. 
I had a good rest after our tramp was over. Ben got 
wood ready for the night. I dressed a pheasant for sup- 
per, and got water from the spring. Ben said some trout 
would go well with the 'bird. He shouldered the big 
.45-90 and started off. I followed behind. The wind w-as 
so high and the lake so rough that we did not try for 
trout, but went dowii to the outlet behind a sheltered 
point hoping to find quiet water, but the f^tes were 
against us_; we were not to have any fish for supper 
About this time the dark lowering clouds began to 
gather faster and thicker, and away in the north sheet 
Hghtning played hide and seek across the heavens. The 
roar of distant thunder told us what was coming. 
A blast from the horn went volting down the lake, 
and was echoed back from the hills on the north and 
west. Almost instantly the old familiar grunt of a bull, 
greeted our ears. It came from the thick woods a little 
to our left between the lakes and sounded as if the vocal- 
ist might be a half mile or so away. We quickly hid 
and awaited his coming. A deaf man could have heard 
hmi come crashing through the woods. He did not stop 
until he came to the opposite side of the outlet, where a 
deeply worn trail led out through the brush to the open 
water. About sixty yards from us he stood in six inches 
of mud, and the trail had been worn to a depth of oyer 
two feet. We were facing west and the sun was getting 
low and a storm coming, so that it was impossible_^ to 
see into the dark recesses of the woods. I knew just 
where the last sound came from, and was certain that 
he was there, but could not see him. Quietly laying my 
hat off and getting upon my feet slowly, with only the 
top of my head above the brush, I still could not see 
him, but he was not so slow, he saw me, and what a 
time he had getting his feet out of the mud and vault- 
ing out of that traib It was all over in an instant. 
There was time enough for a snap-shot, but my faith 
in such shots with small calibered guns had been weak- 
ened by what I had heard of their failure to stop bull 
moose, unless the shot was well placed. I only saw hi.s 
flanks and rump, so I ihemght it better not to shoot at all 
than only to wound him. The rain, which was rapidly 
coming on, would obliterate all traces of blood, and wc 
could not hope to find him before it would be too dark 
in the woods to see. When it was all over, Ben sat on a 
log sad and dejected, his face buried in his hands. The 
moose was gone, we might not see another, and Ms 
reputation would suffer, and it was all my fault that the 
victors were not at that moment rejoicing over the van- 
quished. I knew that an explosion was coming. The 
last view that I had had of him he was lying flat on the 
ground fifteen feet away and urging me to keep con- 
cealed. Presently I thought he said "get up." What he 
really said was, "I'll tell you when to get up." My over 
anxiety added another thousand years to the time re- 
quired to get a moose, in Ben's opinion. I tried to con- 
sole him with the assurance that we v^ould get him to- 
morrow, but he had entirely lost faith in me. 
Night was rapidly coming on, and having secured a 
supply of birch bark for torches, we made our way to 
the tent. After supper Ben said he was sorry that he ' 
had said so much to me. Of course I was sorry so 
much had been said on my part; but as this was our 
second row, we were getting used to complimentmg each 
other. My assurance that the next moose that came my 
way would be mine, brought forth no response, save a 
smile of pity at my credulitv. For four evenings in suc- 
cession the count and Alex had had answers over m 
this section, but from contrary winds, thick woods and 
brush and darkness coming on had failed to get a shot. 
We were down at the lake early next mornmg and 
called until 9 o'clock, but no answer came save the 
howling of the wind. \ . , 
After breakfast Ben went over to fhe cabm xor bread 
after directing" me where to go and watch down at the 
lake until his return. I did as directed; but a short ex- 
perience sufficed. The wind howled, the trees swayed to 
and fro, the top of one that had served its usefulness 
came crashing to the ground uncomfortably near, and 
even when I would sit down there would be a movement 
•underneath, synchronous with the swaying of the trees.' 
All the roots of the evergreen trees, except the center 
or heart root, which goes directly down into the earth, 
run on top of the ground, covered only with moss and 
leaves of ages past, which make a sort of soil and fills 
the interstices between the nigger heads. 
The next morning, Oct. i, we Were late getting up. 
The wind and rain had played havoc with our tent, and 
we had not had much sleep. Ben had gotten a thorough 
wetting the night before, and could hardly speak_ when 
he got up. He was coughing so much that it did not 
seem possible for him to call. We were late getting 
down to the outlet of the lake, but were rewarded by the 
sight of a fine bull and cow feeding out in the lake at 
the upper end, a half-mile away. 
They were about through feeding and were working 
in toward shore when we saw them, and soon disap- 
peared in the woods. Crossing over the outlet we were 
soon at the little barren. A bull answered the horn from 
the south side and not far away, but the answer was not 
repeated, and we did not hear him again. 
Working on over to the outlet of the big Sister Lake, 
I left the trail and went a few rods east, where a good 
view could be had. Hastily casting my eyes over it and 
seeing nothing, I was about to retrace my steps when 
I heard Ben just behind me say, "I see one." I looked 
and looked and looked, but could see nothing that looked 
like a moose. Finally Ben whispered, "Where are your 
eyes? Don't look so far away. Keep down and be 
q:uiet. There must be a bull near by." The wind was 
against us; and we could not expect this seance to con- 
tinue indefinitely, but there stood a beautiful cow not 
over seventy-five yards away. I had been looking over 
her into the woods beyond expecting to see a bull_ step 
out. She tossed her head nervously from side to side a 
few times, finally looked directly toward us, and turned 
her mule-like ears to catch the least sound of danger, 
but there was none, unless the sound of my heart beatings 
was wafted to her by the favoring breeze, but she had 
her nose with her when sight and hearing fail, and %t 
can always be depended upon to give notice of danger. 
Her immense upper lip moved nervously a few times to 
open wide her distended nostrils. She turned and disap- 
peared in the brush and woods so quietly that it was as 
if the earth had swallowed her up. 
About 200 yards from/ there I sat down on a stone be- 
side a moose trail on the bank of the lake. Ben said 
he would go further up to where a rocky point jutted 
out into the lake; he and Ed had had a Mr Eric, of 
York city, out the year before, and he had knocked 
down a fine bull at this rocky point with a Mannlicher. 
but he would not stay down, the bullet was not well 
placed, as our .30 caliber friends insist they must be. 
He would not shoot again, and the moose staggered 
off into the woods and bled so little that they could not 
I 
