466 
Hon. George W, Wiggin, former president oi the 
State Association, recentl^returned from a trip to 
"The Forks," Maine. In "tine party were also Mr. 
Bradley Rockwood, of Franklin, and Mr. Howe, of 
Boston. They went in via Bingham and to a camp on 
Moxie Pond. They report a horde of Westerners in 
the region, but were able to find a secluded spot where 
they secured three deer. 
James R. Reed, president of the State Association, 
writes from New Brunswick that he finds caribou 
identy, but has not yet seen a bull moose; saw sev- 
eral cows. 
Among those who have returned from Maine with 
moose are C. H. Randall and F. Webster, of Boston, 
and Charles Harmon, of Lynn. John W. Farley, 
George Carter, E. G. Penniman, F. F. Cushman, Mrs, 
J. L. Cushman, A. D. Wright, F. W. Thurston, J. C 
Chamberlain, Mrs. Chamberlain, G. W. Sullivan, E. G. 
Morse, W^ B. Berry, G. R. Noble and Frank E. Wilson, 
all of Boston, have recently returned from Maine with 
deer. Central. 
Massachasetts Game Laws. 
Editor Forest and Stream: - 
It is very doubtful if there is another State in the 
Union that has better protective laws for fish and 
game than the old Bay State. More than two decades 
ago summer woodcock shooting was made illegal. 
For the past three years spring duck shooting has been 
prohibited. For the same length of time the open 
season on woodcock, partridge and quail has been 
limited to the two months of October and November, 
which is all the time that should be allowed under 
present conditions. 
We also have a law prohibiting the sale of woodcock 
and partridge at any time, which was brought about 
by the sportsmen with the aid of the marketmen, who 
agreed not to buy or sell these fast disappearing birds, 
and we have good reason to think they deserve the 
praise of having lived up to their agreement for the 
past three years. This law has produced good results 
and saved a great many birds, as it is estimated that 
from 15,000 to 20,000 were shot for the market an- 
nually. These two valuable game birds cannot be suc- 
cessfully bred in captivity, and turned loose to replen- 
ish the exhausted covers like the quail. The Avood- 
cock and the woodduck being migrants, are being 
persecuted at both ends of the line, North and South j 
it is like burning the candle at both ends. It seems 
a great pity these birds are not protected in every 
State in the Union during their breeding seasons. 
Spring and summer shooting should be abolished every-- 
where. We have a very efficient board of _ fish and 
game commissioners. The arrests and convictions of 
lawbreakers have been many, and the fines so heavy 
as to teach them that the commission has not been 
idle, and the way of the transgressor is hard. 
Geo. L. Brown. 
Massachusetts Poachers Discouraged. 
Boston, Mass., Dec. 4. The good work of enforcing 
the game laws has gone on as usual since I last wrote 
you. On Sunday, Nov. 23, two of the game wardens 
"surrounded" "six Sunday hunters down in East Douglas, 
and each one of them was convicted and fined $15. Since 
then, deputies Luman and Shea have captured Joseph 
Bugbee of New Braintree for having in possession for 
sale thirteen partridge. Bugbee was tried on December 2 
at Gilbertville on one bird and fined $20, and Judge Hea- 
ley continued the case of sentence on the other twelve 
birds and told Bugbee that if the court learned of other 
transgressions of the game laws on his part the full sen- 
tence would be imposed.- On the same day Luman and 
Shea secured two other convictions for violations of the 
game laws, and beside these, four other convictions have 
been secured this week by other deputies. 
This vigorous work has had a most salutary effect and 
the would-be poachers and pot hunters are badly scared, 
so much so that in sections where the game laws were 
never before respected, there is a decided change now. 
Bay State. 
New Hampshire Deer Hunting 
Vith a Bear Episode. 
I HAVE just returned from a short trip after deer. 1 
understand that there have been more deer hunters in 
northern New Hampshire this season than ever, and very 
few deer have been killed, and most of what were, were 
shot by parties watching near apple trees. My hunting 
grounds were in the vicinity of Merrill's Mountain Home, 
on the road leading to the top of Moosilauke Mountain. 
Some two miles from Merrill's are two deserted farms; 
ihey are but a short distance apart, and the deer go 
from one to the other. There is a barn on one farm and 
a house and barn on the other. There are also a number 
of apple trees, and I think about all the deer in that sec- 
tion go to those apple trees. They show considerable 
sense and go as I judged about midnight. The morning 
after my arrival I was at one of the barns at daybreak 
and not a deer was to be seen, though there were plenty 
of sign that they had been there. 
The next day it began to snow (there was no snow 
before), and I thought I should get a chance to do some 
still-hunting. With the perversity of_ such snowfalls 
(when one is on the hunting grounds), it .was a mixture 
of snow, rain and hail, and the result was the noisiest 
kind of traveling. 
Before daybreak the next morning I was at the barn. 
The snow told the story of the preceding night. Deer 
tracks were everywhere, of big deer and small deer. The 
•snow was completely cut up. The house and the barn 
are some thirty-five yards apart, and three deer had 
walked between the buildings. I circled around that 
ground and found that some six or seven deer had made 
all the tracks. The day was very still and the snow 
very noisy, and the frozen leaves under the snow in the 
woods made more noise than the snow. There was about 
one chance in a hundred of getting a shot by tracking. I 
took a couple of tracks and followed them as carefully as 
I could for about an hour. They led straight up the 
mountain and showed no signs of wanting to stop, I ex- 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
pected to see signs of their stopping to lie down, and I 
intended then to try and circle around such places. Well, 
1 saw what all still-hunters often see, two fresh beds and 
two sets of tracks where the deer had gone on the jump. 
I then struck north along the side of the mountain, and 
after a time fomid the track of a very large buck. He 
led through some quite open hardwood growth, and 1 
began to have hopes of getting a shot. 1 tried my best to 
get that deer, keeping most of the tune sonie fifty yards to 
one side of his trail and using my eycji for all they were 
worth. After about an hour 1 saw the buck a long way 
off. He had just turned broadside to me, and went out 
of sight. I could not think what had become of him. I 
knew he did not run, aud thought he nu'ght have lain 
down. I watched for a few minutes, then worked up, and 
found that a small break ran down the mountain and the 
deer had followed it up and there was just bank enougli 
to cover him. I followed him then for two hoin-s and 
jumped him in some thick spruce, Jiever getting a glimpse. 
I gave up then trying to do any more tracking. J did not 
know where- I was, and it was about all I wanted to do 
to get out of the woods. Men born and bred in that or 
similar regions may enjoy slabbing those mountains. It 
tykes Ihe wind out of me to do nutch of it. 
After that 1 spent a number of hours watching from 
ihe barn. On the last morning I climbed up under the 
eaves of the barn and saw a deer so far away that it 
looked about as large as a sheep. It tiirned and walked 
,\nlo the woods, and I started for MerrilTs and took the 
afternoon train home. 
A neiglibor who is a first-rate still-hunter and also a 
very lucky hunter, was hunting in the vicinity of the three 
ponds in Ellswortli- He was some six or seven miles east 
from where I was, but there was quite a bunch of moun- 
tains bevween us. It so happened (hat we both came home 
on the same train. His experience was about like mine. 
He had not seen a deer, but had found five times as many 
fresh signs. He jumped deer after deer, and no matter 
how carefully he worked, he could not get a glimpse of 
■one. He found it just as noisy as I did. 
I do not see how there can be any fair still-hunting this 
season. In the region where I was there is some four 
inches of noisy snow and the frozen leaves under it are 
worse. Six inches more of dry snow would not kill the 
noise. Should the present snow go off and more come 
afterward, there might be some hunting, but it is not 
likely, as there is less than two weeks of open season left. 
In some instances that I heard of where deer were 
killed, luck had a great deal to do with it. A man (as I 
was told) started out one day on bare ground, took his 
horse and wagon and drove along a road to where an old 
lumber road came down off the mountain. He tied his 
horse and walked some two hundred yards up the lumber 
road. Saw a deer walking down the road and shot 
it. While dressing this deer he saw another coming to- 
ward him ; he shot that one. A few minutes later he saw 
a fox coming down the road, and he killed the fox. He 
then dragged the deer out and loaded them in his wagon 
and started for home. After going a short distance he 
saw another fox coming toward the road ; he shot that 
fox also. He said he was gone from home just three 
hours, and killed two deer and two foxes, and did not 
have to work to get them. 
Now as to Merrill, of the Mountain Home. Merrill 
catches some bears. He also keeps some sheep. The 
bears catch his sheep and he catches the bears. I think 
]\Terrill Avould be willing to lose more sheep if he could 
catch more bears. 
Merrill has a sort of frog pond in a swamp up in the 
mountains back of his house. lit years past he has 
caught some fifteen bears at that place. Merrill says that 
when a bear strays that way he nearly always goes 
through that swamp at a certain place. Merrill has made 
a sort of loose brush fence there, leaviitg an opening 
for the bears to go through. He sets his traps in the 
opening, using no bait. The trap patiently awaits the 
coming of the bear. Last May a bear took four sheep, 
and the trap was set. The first time the bear came that 
way he stepped over the trap. The second time a hedge- 
hog had the trap, or the trap had the hedgehog. The 
third time the hear did his part and got caught. The 
trap was set in May and the bear got into it in September. 
Now. catching a bear in a steel trap does not meaii that 
you go to where the trap was set and find a bear in it. It 
means that both trap and bear are gone. This bear was 
easily tracked for some distance, then the bear used his 
wits and got rid of the clog of the trap. He was fol- 
lowed for a while and then all traces were lost, 
Merrill says that a bear will pick up a trap and carry it, 
leaving no trail on hard ground. Merrill made a wide 
circle around in the direction he thought the bear would 
go and found the trail. It was followed a lottg distance, 
and the bear was found. I saw a photo of it as it lay dead 
in Merrill's door yard. 
On my way home I saw several returning deerless 
sportsutcit. There is one thing this tracking and still- 
hunting of deer is doing, and doing it thoroughly. It is 
making the deer very much wilder. Years ago in sec- 
lions where deer were hunted with dogs, oite when hear- 
ing the footsteps of a still-hunter, would jump up and 
stand looking, waiting to see what was coming. After 
being still -hunted for a time, they lost all such curiosity. 
They jumped up and left at once. 
Now, I am not at all satisfied with the result of my 
recent trip. From near my house I can see the moun- 
taiits in the region where I hunted. Should I hear that 
the snow there goes off during the present week, I shall 
go up aitd spend the last few days of the open season. It 
may prove unsuccessful, but there is nothing like trying. 
C. M. Stark. 
DUNBARTON, N. H , Dec. 1, 
Cttfritwck Shooting. 
Carolla, N. C, Dec. 2. — ^The November record is 
1,000 ducks, 500 geese, 300 swans. Most of the ducks are 
canvasbacks and redheads. One party from Washington 
killed 300 ducks, 5 swans, 15 geese in two days._ One 
party from New -York 6 swans, 20 geese, 200 ducks, in four 
days. Another party from New York, 2 men, shot 150 
ducks, 3 swans, 25 geese, in two days, and the oher fowl 
were shot by Ross White and Miss Lee White. 
L. R. White. 
Guns and Their Handlers. 
[■'ditor Forest and Stream: 
While the hunting season is on we can seldom pick np 
a paper that does not give at least one account of an acci- 
dental shooting from some cause or another. 
Mr. Joseph W. Shurter, in the current number of the 
Forest and Stream,, gives his opithon as to what cause-o 
some of them ; and he is right. A man who has taken 
too much whisky has no business with a gun either in his 
hands or his pocket. I have no dislike for whisky or the 
men who use it; t can use it myself, but I don't need any 
when I am traveling around with a gun. 
But I have ofteit thought that our modern breechloaders 
should have the credit for a great many of these acci- 
dents. There are some of us still living who began shoot- 
ing years before we had any breechloaders. Then we did 
not blaze away at every bush or bunch of grass we saw 
moving, We waited until we saw what was moving it, 
and were sure we did see what it was before firing; for 
if we missed, before we were ready to fire again whatever 
we were shooting at would be half-way across to the next 
county. But now with the breechloader that only needs a 
twist of the wrist to reload, we can keep on pumping 
lead until the magazine is empty, and by that time we will 
liave hit something, if it is only a stump on the side of a- 
liill half a mile away. If it is not a man who stops one of 
these balls, then that is the man's fault, not ours; we 
have not stopped long enough to see whether he was in 
range or not. 
The man or boy who carries his gurt by the muzzle and , 
dragn it out of a wagon or boat or through a fence with 
ibe muzzle pointed to^vard him, belongs to a class by 
liims'-lf, he v.'ill shoot himself or some one else sooner or 
later; that i.s a foregone conclusion. 
If it should be a boy who is doing this, he will get a 
lesson as to how to handle his gun, from me, before he 
goes any further. If it is a man, then I want to go further 
myself and get clear out of his neighborhood before the 
catastrophy takes place, then let some other unfortunate 
get that charge xif buckshot. 
The last shooting accident that I saw a notice of was 
where two young men in our own State here were hunt- 
ing email; one of them had just stooped down to pick 
np a dead bird when his companion fired, sending his \ 
load of shot into the head and shoulders of the man who ■ 
was stooping here at his feet. 
"You were probably both shooting the quail on the 
ground," I thought, "so I can't pity you much. After the 
doctor gets through with you, both of you may be more 
careful hereafter. Let us hope so, but probably you 
won't." Cabia Blanco. 
Erie, Pa. . 
A Disgrace to Virginia. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
On Thanksgiving Day in this year of grace, I902,_ I 
was in Princess Anne county, Virginia, in the vicinity < 
of that small sheet of fresh water commonly known as the 
North Bay. About 2 o'clock in the afternoon we were 1 
alarmed by what appeared to be a perfect fusillade of 
musketry, as though the fiercest kind of a sham battle 
were being fought oit the bay. 
On proceeding to the shores of the bay, we discovered 
the cause to be a battue of that nondescript wildfowl 
locally known as "blue peter," and we beheld a sight 
wdiich would incite to wrath every lover of animal life 
and cause a real man the utmost indignation. Several 
small, quick-moving sailboats would, as far as possible, ' 
surround a raft of blue peters and then close in as rapidly 
as possible, and open fire on the almost helpless prey. 
Each boat had two men in the bow to do the firing, and 
fire they did as fast as they could, so the din and the 
slaughter can readily be imagined. When the round tip 
was finished by the boats reaching the shore, the boats 
would return under easy sail aitd pick up the dead, and 
when this was done the blue peters would be again sought 
and the performance repeated. Naturally, every living' 
thing except the crew of the boats le;^t the bay. Formerly 
this bay was frequented by large numbers of wildfowl,, 
but owing to the above-described way of carrying on 
wanton destruction, as well as the continued use of bat- ^ 
teries, wildfowl have been practically exterminated and a 
duck is rarely seen on this water. I am mformed the 
same practice has begun on the Back Bay, and that bat-' 
teries also are largely used there. It is safe to say that if 
some stop is not made and that right speedily, the wild- 
fowl will be driven from that bay, and the once-famed 
shooting ground of the Ragged Island Club will be but ; 
a memory. 
One remedy would appear to be simple. Let the Legis- , 
lature prohibit shooting from boats and also authorize 
the appointment by a chief State warden or by the county 
court, of game wardens in every county, and let each 
and every gunner take out a license and the fees received, 
from licenses be expended in paying the game wardens. 
It certainly is the duty of the State to protect itself and 
its law-abidiitg citizens against such lawless acts and 
prevent such wanton and useless slaughter. Xper. 
Capt* John Travis. 
From the Turf, Field and Farm, Feb. 29, 1868. 
The celebrated pistol shot of the United States being 
now in our city for a short time, giving lessons in his 
favorite art, our readers may like to learn something of, 
the man and his remarkable feats. He is the wimier of' 
loS consecutive matches, the distance he has shot in his 
different matches ranging from lo to 500 yards, shooting 
altogether with a pistol. Some of our readers perhaps 
will recollect the great feat he performed in Louisiana in 
1853, shooting at the first shot on a wager of one thou- 
sand dollars, a small orange from the head of Mr. J. P., 
Osgood. At the distance of twenty paces, another great- 
feat of his at Niagara Falls was much talked of at the, 
time. Monsieur Blondin, the renowned rope walker, was 
crossing Niagara River from the American to the Cana-i 
dian side. When half-way across Blondin held out his' 
hat, and the captain from the deck of the steamer Maid 
of the Mist, at the distance of 360 feet, shot a ball, 
through the hat. 
