Ducks at Cape Hatteras. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Every fall finds me suffering from an attack of duck 
fever,_ and last season it seemed more severe than usual, 
knowing that I could not make my accustomed trip to 
Dawson, N. D., so when I received an invitation to make 
one of a party of four bound for Cape Hatteras, N. C, I 
at once accepted. The party was made up as follows : 
Dr. L. S. Blades and O. F. Gilbert, of Elizabeth City, 
N. C; N. W, Green and C. E. Wilson, of Troy, N. Y., 
Mr. Green and myself arrived at Elizabeth City, N. C, on 
pec. 28, where we found the Doctor and President wait- 
ing for us, with all stores aboard, and the Captain ready 
to sail. As we had a little over 100 miles to run, we 
were anxious to be off. Our vessel was a three-masted 
schooner, 125 feet by 23^^ feet, owned by Blades Lumber 
Company, and engaged in carrying lumber from one of 
their numerous mills to their distributing point at Eliza- 
beth City. 
_We left the wharf at 4:15 P. M., and, owing to head 
winds, made but ten miles, anchoring in the Pasquotank 
River. The next morning we got under way in good sea- 
son, and when the steward announced "Breakfast ready, 
sah," we all responded promptly and enjoyed it as one 
only can after taking a constitutional on deck, and 
inhaling the fresh morning air. 
; Crossing Albemarle Sound the Avind increased as the 
day adranced, and when off Roanoke Island a heavy 
squall carried away the gaff on the mainsail. This was 
spmewhat exciting to us land lubbers, but the Captain and 
crew seemed to act as if it was an every-day occurrence, 
and at once lowered sail and lay to for repairs, which used 
up the rest of the day. 
Monday morning found us trying to make time against 
a stiff head wind, with poor siiccess, and after beating 
about all day we were again compelled to anchor about 
ttn miles south of the island. 
Tuesday morning we arose early and found that the 
Captain was an early bird and had been under way for 
some time, and we were going at a glorious rate, and our 
spirits rose accordingly, until we arrived at the Cape 
Channel, when the Captain made an error in the buoys 
and put the vessel on a reef with all sails set. After 
considerable effort on the part of the crew in carrying 
off the anchors from bow and stern, owing to the heavy 
seas, we commenced our tug- on the lines and found we 
were in a dangerous position; we had but three feet of 
water forward and were on a hard bottom. The Captain 
fearing she would pound badly, set his signal of distress 
for the life saving crew, who reached us shortly after we 
got her afloat. I never fully appreciated the necessity of 
the life saving service before, but when Captain Gray 
and his crew came alongside, we gave them three hearty 
cheers, and were fully convinced that in the establishing 
of life saving stations along our coasts Uncle Sam is do- 
ing a glorious work. Captain Gray and crew assisted 
our Captain in getting the schooner back into the channel 
and stayed by him until out of danger. Our boatmen 
expecting us, and seeing us go on the shoal, came off and 
transferred our baggage and party to shore, where we 
found Dr. J. J. Davis waiting. 
We had been in our room but a few moments wben we 
thought we could smell smoke, and after one of the party 
made some uncomplimentary remark about the cigar I 
was smoking, we commenced to look around, and thought 
;We saw smoke coming through the floor. We rushed 
downstairs and found the sitting room on fire. After 
forming a bucket brigade we. went to work, and soon 
had it out. Dr. Davis had secured for us as guides N. T. 
Jennett, R. W. Midget and several others whose names I 
do not recall. We found them to be good men and always 
looking after our comfort, and were more anxious for us 
to get game than we were. 
The second day after our arrival being very still, and 
the prospects poor for birds, we decided to go in the tim- 
ber for deer. The timber extends from the sound to the 
ocean, being ten miles long and four wide, and a most 
'beautiful spot. The principal timber is the North Caro- 
lina pine, growing, as it does, tall and straight out of 
the white sand, with here and there a holly tree with their 
red berries and green leaves, palms and bay trees in abun- 
dance, which all gives it a verj' tropical appearance, and 
one imagines he is in a foreign country. The deer are 
h'ke our Adirondack variety, but much smaller, and in 
hunting them we took stands on the runways, using shot- 
guns, as at timesr our watches were close together and 
rifles would have been dangerous. The guides had a 
.small mongrel dog which was used to run the deer out of 
the swamps, and after running a short time they would 
return to us for another run, and in this manner we 
would sometimes make six runs in a day. I was much 
surprised to see how easily the deer were killed. They 
.cannot carry off the loads our Northern deer do, and one 
of the party killed one with No. 4 shot, and the three 
killed were dropped in their tracks. 
We saw some gray squirrels in the timber, and were 
told they lived on buds, as there are no nut trees in that 
section. 
The yeopon tree, which I forgot to mention, grows in 
abundance, and has a bright red berry similar to the 
holly. The leaves are gathered by the natives, who make 
a tea of them, which is used in place of Sir Thomas Lip- 
ton's, but, upon the advice of Dr. Davis, we did not try it. 
On the sound we found ducks, geese and brant in 
countless numbers, but also found them well educated, as 
I never saw birds that understood blinds better; and we 
were told that in many sections of the sound they were 
decoying poorly. We shot from pier blinds six days and 
got about 150 birds, so I don't think we can be classed 
with the game hogs, as this was but an average of six 
birds .per day per man; but of course this record is gen- 
erally beaten. We had planned a 'possum hunt, but our 
president entertained us so pleasantly evenings with his 
guitar and plantation songs, we^ did not have the neces- 
sary enthusiasm, and his playing and singing were a 
delight to us all. 
Our trip returning was made on a tug, which arrived 
off Cape Channel Saturday, Jan. 11, at 10 A. M., and, after 
getting aboard with our game and baggage, we all took a 
hand in decorating th^ tug, and by evening had her well 
covered with holly, palms and game* We had been ran- 
kling all day in quite » Heavy .sea, and hj 9 P, M, it got 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
so bad that we decided to run for harbor, which we 
found west of Roanoke Island, where we lay until 2 
A. M., when we got under way, only to get caught in 
another heavy blow in crossing Albemarle Sound. The 
boiler leaked, and we could only keep eighty pounds, and 
were making about three miles per hour. The engineer 
and fireman worked for seven hours trying to keep the 
water below the fires. Sea after sea boarded us. freezing 
as it struck, so that moving _ about was dangerous ; in 
fa£t, we rolled so that it was impossible to walk, and we 
were very thankful when we tied up to the wharf at 
Elizabeth City, where we left the boat. With all of our 
unpleasant experiences, our trip was a delightful one, and 
will be long remembered. We are under many obligations 
to our goods friends in Elizabeth City, who made our 
trip possible, and our stay in their prosperous city so 
pleasant. If any of your readers care to try the shoot- 
ing at the Cape, I would advise them to stop, if possible, 
with Dr^ J,. J. Davis and his good wife, to whom we are 
greatly Indebted for their kind attentions. 
C. E. Wilson. 
Adirondack Notes. 
A Bear Mortality Tfaeoty, 
The crop of Adirondack bears has been larger than 
usual this season, and the reason is not particularly ob- 
vious. Harvey Alford, of Lake Placid, accovmts for the 
abundance by stating that the past winter was particu- 
larly favorable for bears in that there were no hard 
thaws and freezes. Alford believes that hibernating bears 
are often frozen in their dens, and either frozen to death 
or starved as a result, 
"In Canada," says Alford, "when the bears den up they 
make a big nest for themselves of cedar bark and one 
thing or another under the roots of a tree or on the sur- 
face of the ground, where they can have some protection 
from the weather. I have seen dozens of such places 
where they secured the bark and made their dens, but I 
never saw where they denned in ledges. 
"Here in the Adirondacks our country is very rough 
naturally, and the bears almost always go in the ledges. 
They crawl into some crevice in the rocks, and if by 
chance a heavy thaw sets in and the water runs down and 
freezes, they are caught in a trap. The ice does not thaw 
out in such places till late in the spring, and if they 
are not killed outright they have lots of chance to starve 
before they can get out. 
"Bears are naturally prolific. They are apt to have 
two cubs at a birth, and they are long-lived animals. If 
the supply did not suffer from nattu-al causes, there would 
be more bears than there are at present in the Adiron- 
dacks. 
"The number of bears trapped is not very great, and 
practically none are killed st^ll-htxnting. Most of the bears 
killed are small bears, large bears being verjr exceptional. 
This, I think, indicates that the big ones die from natural 
causes. They have just so many chances to escape being 
frozen in, and the number that sur\nve to maturity is 
limited.'' 
Theft of a Bear. 
Walter Derby, a farmer, collector of geological speci- 
mens, and trapper who lives in the town of Lewis, in the 
eastern Adirondacks, has had bad luck in his bear-trap- 
ping operations recently. Several bears have pulled out 
of his traps, leaving portions of their feet, and the other 
day a bear, trap and all was stolen by some tough charac- 
ters living on a mountain farm in a neighboring valley. 
Derby, following the trail left by the trapped bear, came 
to a point on a wood road where the trail suddenly ended. 
There was evidence to shoAV that the bear had been killed 
and afterward loaded on a wagon. The wagon had been 
drawn by mules, and Derby, noting this fact, was able a 
few hours later to locate the mules and the men who had 
taken the bear. 
At first the thieves denied their guilt, but eventually 
thej'- gave up the trap, and now Derby proposes to sue 
them for the value of the bear. Had they left the trap 
and taken only the bear, it would probably have been im- 
possible to convict them, as Derby would have had hard 
work to prove that the bear was his while it yet had a 
chance of liberty. 
An Adirondack Cave. 
In company with Derby^ Mr. H .B. Walmsley and my- 
self visited a cave which Derby discovered not long ago 
near Black Mountain. Derby, while looking for graphite 
in a limestone ledge above a tributary of Roaring Brook, 
accidentally stumbled on the entrance, which is a narrow 
cleft half-way up the face of a forty-foot cliff. The en- 
trance is so well concealed that the chance trout fishermen 
who pass down the brook have never seen it, and as far as 
we could ascei'tain, the cave is absolutely virgin soil. 
A small brook runs through the cave, which is in all 
probability the subterranean outlet of Jack McCann's 
Pond, half a mile away, as it is said the water from this 
pond runs into the ground and disappears. 
Derby, Walmsley and I entered the cave in the order 
given. We wore rubber boots and were provided with 
enough candles to have supplied us with food for a week 
had an accident imprisoned us in the cave. 
A hundred feet beyond the entrance was a side channel 
opening on an off-shoot of the cave which proved upon 
investigation to be only about fifty feet in length. Just 
beyond this a slab of rock which had fallen from, above 
alr.^ost barred the passage, but by stooping so that the 
water almost ran in our boots, we managed to get under 
the obstruction. 
- Two hundred feet from the entrance rocks again barred 
the way, but by crawling over them and worming our 
way upward at an angle of forty-five degrees, we soon 
came into a chamber twenty or thirty feet in diameter 
and twenty feet high. Beyond, one of tht channels ex- 
tended fifty feet, but fallen rocks blocked the way, and 
this proved the limit of the cave as far as we were con- 
cerned. As there was a strong rush of air at this point, 
sufficient to l^w out a candle, it is probable the cave has 
a much greater extent, and by removing some of the 
boulders it is not unlikely a way would be disclosed to go 
in much further. 
wer? cont^it, !»w^y«r, t« sit ip the chapilKir an<? 
[Aug. 16, 1902. 
smoke and speculate, as to what would happen if some 
of the loose rocks nearer the entrance should fall and 
m.ake us prisoners in the cave. As we had the discoverer 
of the cave with us, our chances of receiving external 
aid in such a predicament were, to say the least, not very 
encouraging. 
The sides, floor and roof of the cave were covered with 
corruscations, which appeared to be miniature stalagmites 
and stalactites. Breaking off some of the precipitated 
limestone surface covering, we discovered graphite par- 
ticles in the crystalline native limestone rock beneath. Be- 
low our feet we could hear the noise of the water where 
it had found a lower channel under the fallen rock. There 
was absolutely no evidence to indicate that this chamber 
had ever before been visited by man. and no charred birch 
bark or candle grease on the rocks or torch remnants such 
as would have been left if white men or Indians had en- 
tered the cave. There was also nothing to indicate the 
presence of animals. The place would have made a good 
bear den, but the running water had no doubt served as a 
barrier to animal ingress. 
This cave is, I believe, the largest found so far in the 
Adirondacks. where limestone is not common, and the 
geological conditions generally unfavorable for cave for- 
mation. J. B. BUSNHAM. 
Indian Territory Quail. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Mr. Woodward's advertisement in the Forest and 
Stream is based on a misapprehension of the law. 
The Lacey Act does not prevent the transportation of 
any dead or live birds or other game, except such as are 
caught or killed in violation of the local laws. If it is 
unlawful, under the' State law, to net or trap quail in 
Illinois, it is consequently imlawful tmder the Lacey Act 
to ship them from one State to another. The amendment 
Mr. Woodward really needs is to the local laws, so that 
quail may be lawfully caught for propagation. There are at 
present no States that are willing to have' their quail netted 
for shipmemt, and if there had been no Federal law to 
prohibit the transportation, the parties engaged in net- 
ting or trapping the quail would be liable under probably 
all of the various State laws. 
The laws of the Indian Territory were not changed by 
the Lacey Act, and remain just as they were in the Re- 
vised Statutes of 1873, as follows: 
"Section .2137.— Every person, other than an Indian, 
who, within the limits of any tribe, with whom the 
United States has existing treaties, hunts or traps, or 
takes and destroys 2.ny peltries or game, except for sub- 
sistence in the Indian country, shall forfeit all the traps, 
guns and ammunition in his possession, used or procured 
to be used for that purpose, and all peltries so taken, and 
shall be liable in addition to a penalty of $500." 
All of the live quail shipped by any one out of the 
Indian Territory have been caught in violation of this sec- 
tion of the Revised Statutes of the United States of 1873, 
The people in the Indian Territory could have en- 
forced this law at any time since 1873 by penalty of $500 
for each capture for shipment. The trapping and netting 
of the quail there has been a Federal crime for thirty 
years. J. F. L. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Permit me to call your attention to several inaccuracies 
in the editorial on "Live Quail for Stocking" which ap- 
pears in the Forest,and Stream for Aug. 9. Not Only in 
what is said, but in what is implied, the article is very 
wide of the mark, and is calculated to convey an entirely 
erroneous impression to readers who are not familiar Avith 
the facts in the case. 
(i.) The editorial states "any notion that the restora^ 
tion of the game supply would be advanced through the 
agency of the Department of Agriculture has by this 
time been dissipated." It is true that no game birds 
have been imported from foreign countries, or native game 
birds distributed, but this is simply because there has 
been no appropriation for such work. With an adequate 
appropriation and the legislation necessary to establish 
game preserves in the forest reserves, there will prob- 
ably be no ground for complaint of inaction. As a matter 
of fact, persons desiring to secure game birds have been 
aided whenever possible and no opportunity has been 
lost to urge amendment of local laws so as to provide for 
export of game for propagation. Every facility has 
been extended to importers of foreign game and assistance 
has been rendered in securing the removal of the prohibi- 
tion against importation of eggs of game birds. This 
long-desired object has now been accomplished, and eggs 
have already begun to come in, although the law only 
went into effect in June. 
(2.) "The Department has interfered in a manner 
which is claimed to be wholly arbitrary and without war- 
rant of law in various private enterprises in live-quail 
transportation for stocking purposes." If any private 
enterprises have been interfered with, it is because their 
operations were conducted in an illegal maner. 
(3.) "It has interfered with a lawful traffic in live 
game, and by the seizure of such quail passing through the 
States has thwarted numerous attempts to restore shoot- 
ing." This broad statement rests on a very slight founda- 
tion. So far as I am aware, the only live quail "passing 
through the States" which have been interfered with en 
route were two consignments intercepted by deputy mar- 
shals because illegally forwarded from the Indian Terri- 
tory b}' a shipper already under indictment on a similar 
charge of shipping game, and who has since been con- 
victed in the United States Court. 
(4.) "The birds have come from the Indian Territory, 
whence under the existing United States statute relative 
to game their export is not forbidden." This statement 
is purely a matter of opinion, which is not supported by 
records of the courts. The inclosed copy of a notice 
signed by the United States Attorney for the Southern 
District of Indian Territory, warning all persons against 
shipment of game, was published in the local papers in 
the spring of 1901, and shows how the law is interpreted 
in the Territoiy. During the past year there have been 
at least four ^mjvictions for shipping quail from two 
4iffereiit distrwra of the Indian Territory, which shows 
I 
