Sept. 19, igo3.]' 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
^21 
1 1 It. Their state was somewhat mitigated, however, by 
the thoughfulness of the members of the Fall Brook Club, 
" ho scattered many bushels of corn where the birds 
' uld get at it. The little fellows flocked around these 
leeding places by the hundreds, and became tame and ap- 
proachable, and few of them died. It is probable that each 
year young birds will be liberated in various numbers, 
.and In another five years the valley, it is hoped, will once 
more be stocked. 
The breeding pens of the pheasants are kept filled with 
old birds, the proportion being 40 hens to 16 cocks, 
divided up into 16 pens. Each hen can be depended on 
to lay about forty eggs a year. These eggs are hatched 
under ordinary hens, the pheasant hen refusing to set in 
captivity. If possible, bantam hens are used, as they do 
not injure the young birds by clumsiness. The young 
pheasants are hardy youngsters and can care for them- 
selves in four or five weeks after hatching. They are fed 
on ordinarj' chicken provender. Major Wadsworth's 
birds at present are half English and half Oregon in 
numbers. The latter birds are larger and sleeker than 
their English cousins. — New York Tribune. 
Maine Sumtn r Deer Killers Fined. 
The Maine Commissioners, having been informed that 
deer had been killed out of season at the camps of A. B. 
T'ouglass, at Deer Pond, in the Dead River region, dis- 
j .itched a detective to the camp on September i. At 
luiStis the detective fell in with Geo. Wood, from 
North Anson, who was going to Deer Pond. Anson told 
detective that he was a guide and could give him lots 
n fun. As the detective tells the story, this is what hap- 
pened : "On the way to Deer Pond, when about four 
iniles from Eustis, Geo. Wood said: 'We have got a 
iiecr up here a little way, and we will show you some 
fun.' We all got ofi^. Fred Berry took a bag from the 
Ijuckboard and we started into the bushes. Berry said : 
'i will show you where it is and then go back and watch, 
: rid if I see anyone I will whistle.' Berry led us to a 
pot where lay a disemboweled fawn deer, a little spotted 
one, which he told me he had shot the afternoon previous 
while coming out from camp, saying, T don't allow them 
1 stand and blat at me.' Wood put the hindquarters in 
I he bag, carried them to the buckboard and put them 
I'lider the seat. At the camp, Gus Douglass carried the 
li;ig into the house and we had venison steaks for dinner, 
(ias Douglass introduced me to Dr. C. B. Parker, of 
Urooklyn, who told me of his seventeen years' acquaint- 
.uice with Mr. DougLass, and of his hospitality and 
r liility as a guide. We talked about the opportunities to 
t et deer and partridge. The Doctor said there Avas 
lenty, but we must be careful and not get caught at it, 
lid went on to tell how to manage, sajnng: 'When there 
need of meat in the camp you will know it. Then if 
you get a deer, leave it right in the woods and let Gus 
! now and he will take care of it.' Gus Douglass and I 
! -d a chat regarding shooting deer. He said: 'There is 
:ry little trouble here, Of course, we do not mean to 
astc the game, but so long as we get only what we need 
iii the camp, there is no trouble.' I asked him if it would 
(jc safe for me to shoot a deer ; that I did not want to get 
10 jail while in Maine. He thought by using caution I 
would be all right; that if a deer or partridge bit and 
itiused me, I mu.st not come to him with any complaint, 
o- night Gus and the Doctor have gone out on the road 
ward 'King and Bartlett.' Gus has a bag and probably 
;y have gone after venison. Waited for their return 
.iilil II o'clock, but did not see them. We had partridge 
for supper. 
"The Doctor and family ai'c getting ready to go home. 
We had deer meat for breakfast this morning and again 
Uiis noon. This afternoon Gus and a guest started out 
on a trip, to be gone over night. They have no guns in 
sight, but Gus carries a bag which I am satisfied contains 
a gun. Before they went, George Wood said to Gus in 
my presence: *I have told Mr. Leighton that if we get a 
deer this afternoon you will take care of it all right. I 
wanted Mr. Leighton to know that what I tell him is all 
right with you.' Mr. Douglass then said, 'Yes, what you 
do will be all right. If you get a deer hang it up, say 
nothing, only let me know where it is and I will take care 
of it. Be careful.' " 
Upon receipt of this information by the Commissioners, 
a warden was sent after Dr. Parker, but he had left for 
home before the warden arrived. Douglass, Berry and the 
others were arrested. Douglass pleaded guilty on two 
counts, and paid a fine of $100. Two others are held over 
him for future good behavior. Berry turned State's evidence 
and was fined $40. A Harvard student implicated in the 
killing was fined, but appealed, and after the appeal the 
case agaist him was dismissed at the instance of the Com- 
missioner. 
He Brougfht in the Bear* 
N. A. KuHN, who has just returned from a trip 
through Colorado, tells an interesting story of an ad- 
A^enture with a bear by F. D. Wead, who accompanied 
Jr. Kuhn on his trip. Wead had always had a longing 
shoot a bear, and his desire being known to Kuhn, the 
tter notified the hotel proprietor at Steamboat Springs 
*. week before their arrival to prepare for a bear hunt. 
The hotel man had a pet bear which he kept at the 
hotel. Every night for a week the hotel man took the 
bear up to the top of a nearby mountain and tied him to 
a tree. In the morning he released him and the bear, be- 
ing hungry, started on the dead run down the mountain 
side to the hotel for breakfast. After this had been kept 
up for a week the bear learned his part pretty well. 
When Wead arriAi-ed he was told to prepare for a bear 
hunt the following morning. During the night his stock 
of cartridges were replaced with blanks. In the morning 
Wead started up the mountain and, at a given signal, the 
bear was released. When Wead saw the animal coming 
down the path headed si might for him, he blazed away 
with his gun a half dozen limes, and then, seeing that his 
shots had no effect, he dropped his gun and fled, with 
the unsuspecting bear, intent on breakfast, following at 
liis heels. 
_ Wead won by a neck, and tried to claim the bear, in- 
sisting that he was responsible fof l^ringing him down 
tp the hotel.v-^iOmaha Daily News. ' " 
Sentfies'^and Blacfc Cattridges* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The editor in the current number notices that aflfair at 
Fort H. G. Wright, where Private Price shot a sergeant 
with what he thought was a blank cartridge, and his re- 
marks on the subject fit it exactly. There is nothing in 
the regulations that will warrant an officer in giving a 
command to shoot a man, even if he is a prisoner: and 
most officers are careful not to give any such order. They 
may tell a sentry "if that prisoner tries to escape, fire at 
him." Then the sentry will most likely fire a mile above 
the prisoner's head, not at it. The fact that he has fired 
clears him; he won't generally have to suffer if his 
prisoner escapes him. 
When acting as sergeant of the guard I have taken the 
gun out of the sentry's hand and fired at an escaping 
man myself; the ball went close enough to him to stop 
him; that is what I meant it to do; but I would never 
tell a sentry to fire. 
This sergeant was not even a prisoner, though, and no 
one, except the man who shot him, will ever know 
whether that ball cartridge was put in the gun for a blank 
or not. 
These sergeants often get the ill will of some men, and 
that man may have put in that loaded cartridge. I don't 
say he did do it; but he may have done it, just to shoot 
that sergeant ; he had an excuse now for doing it — an 
officer had told him to fire. 
Blank cartridges have only been given to men on guard 
within the past few years. I never saw any of them. We 
only used them at a funeral. Why the guard should have 
them I do not know ; they cannot stop an escaping 
prisoner with them. I think that probably the officer 
who gave that order was a young one. He will learn 
more as he grows older. They all do. 
Cabia Blanco. 
Washington Game Law Decision, 
Myers Falls, Wash.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
I'he Superior Court of Spokane county, Washington, 
Judge Belt presiding, has just declared the game law of 
the Legislature of 1903 unconstitutional. The State 
game law of 1901 met a similar fate. His honor pro- 
nounced the law "wonderfully and fearfully made." That 
is, it was badly made, or it was no law at all. It is to 
be regretted that the people elect so many men to legisla- 
tui-es who are adapted neither by education nor training 
in the important and difficult matter of making laws. 
These blacksmith legislators seem to rush in "where 
angels fear to tread." While very few good angels par- 
ticipate in law-making, it would seem that fewer botches 
or law-making butchers should tamper with subjects for 
which they have neither ability nor experience. Too 
many men with more conceit than sense manage to get 
into positions which should be occupied by citizens who 
know something about the matters entrusted to their 
care. These incompetents expose their own ignorance, 
bring their State into disrepute, and inflict damage on 
valuable interests. 
I wish to suggest that some game association should 
prepare a law for those States in which the task is left 
to so many blunderers. It is not enough that law makers 
shall mean well. They should know what to do. Every 
State has a law library and it would not take a competent 
committee from a game association long to frame a law 
that would "hold water" and meet the respect of courts 
and citizens. The draft of such a measure could be sent 
to someone who would attend to its enactment, and in 
this way our game would not be exposed to extermina- 
tion while suitable laws are being put upon the statute 
books. Is this not a practicable suggestion? A foolish 
State pride should not intervene in accepting a well 
digested measure of this kind. A. Meachen. 
Flaking: "Woodchttcfcs* 
Plainfield, Mass. — Old- sportsmen have long been up 
to the knack of "barking" squirrels; that is, of killing 
them by percussion of a chip cut by a close rifle ball out 
of the trunk or limb to which they are clinging, thus 
saying unsightly mutilation. But a similar practice ap- 
plied to woodchucks is new. It was recently introduced 
to the profession in this wise : Capt. E. A. Atkins, an ex- 
member of the Legislature, and a prominent G. A. R. 
man, was a pretty good rifle shot in his day. During or 
after the Civil War he brought home from Tennessee a 
Sharpe's rifle which a guerilla of the period had no 
further use for at the time, and has since put it into occa- 
sional service in target practice and turkey shoots. The 
other day he spied a woodchuck sitting bolt upright on 
the little mound at the mouth of his burrow, as his rela- 
tives, the prairie dogs, do, and placed a ball square on 
his left jaw at 200 yards. His son Arthur gathered the 
quarry before he could \york into his hole, and soon after 
had a chance to try his own skill on another rodent, 
which happened to be in the same position. He did not 
make as good a shot as his father, but he performed a 
more noteworthy exploit, for, instead of hitting the ani- 
mal, the ball struck a stone which was driven against its 
head and killed it. The deflected ball went into the 
woods at an oblique angle, and came near striking War- 
ren Dunham, the road overseer, who was chopping half 
a mile away. 
P. S. — There would have been a good many partridges 
to shoot here next October i if a certain immune had 
not shot a big part of them during the last week in 
August. Charles Hallock. 
Law Bteaking: on Vancouver Island. 
That our cousins across the line in Canada have 
troubles of their own in the matter of game protection, is 
shown by the following note from Nanaimo V. I., B. C. : 
"Bitter complaint is made by local sportsmen and farmers 
in this district of ravages made on game out of season. 
Deer and grouse are alike destroyed by hoodlums from 
here, the trouble being especially bad in Englishmen's 
River district. Unless extreme measures are taken at 
once there will be a great rednctjon of game in thi3 dis- 
trict," ' " ■ ■= 
The Adirondack Elk. 
^Utica, N. Y., September 8. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The movement which was inaugurated a few years ago for 
the propagation of large game in New York State re- 
ceived a serious setback this week by the killing of three 
elk near First Lake, North Branch of Moose River, in 
the Adirondacks. These animals belonged to the herd of 
five elk which were liberated in the wilderness during 
the past year by the Brown's Tract Guides' Association, 
with the hope of permanently establishing this splendid 
kind of game in that region. One of the quintet was ac- 
cidentally killed near Clearwater on the Mohawk and 
Malone Railroad, and on Monday of this week the big 
buH and two cows were found dead in the woods in the 
vicinity of First Lake, where they had been shot down 
by some unknown parties. The elk, when liberated in the 
Adirondacks, took kindly to the change of environment, 
and thrived from the outset. They had become so tame 
that they manifested little, if any, fear of man, and were 
frequently seen at different points in the Fulton Chain 
region and the North Branch country. Only last Sun- 
day the herd made its appearance near Old Forge, and 
was seen by upward of one hundred people. It is a mat- 
ter of profound regret that these noble animals should 
have met such an untimely fate, and much indignation has 
been aroused by the apparently wanton slaughter of the 
trio. W. E. Wolcott. 
A Plattsburg, N. Y., dispatch to the New York Times, 
under date of September 9, says: "Two carloads of elk 
from Wyoming, constituting a herd of forty-three ani- 
mals, were delivered at Paul Smith's to-day, and will ho 
turned loose in the inunense forest preserve of 40,000 
-acres owned by Paul Smith at St. Regis Lake. The elk 
are a present to Paul Smith from a friend in California. 
They arrived in good condition, and will be liberated to- 
morrow. 
"William C. Whitney, of New York, has notified Dr. 
F. E. Kendall, of Saranac Lake, that he is about to ship 
to him a carload of elk, to be distributed about the 
Adirondacks wherever he finds places for them. Dr. 
Kendall has been active in agitating the question of re- 
stocking the forest with big game. He has decided to 
release some of the elk on the State road, just above the 
new State bridge near Saranac Lake. 
"The number of deer reported killed in tke Adirondacks 
during the first week of the open season is far greater 
than was ever before killed at this time of the year. Some 
attribute the increase in their number to the destruction 
of their usual feeding places by forest fires early in the 
season. Hardly an oat field or a meadow in the woods 
does not serve as a feeding place for deer." 
Catgfttt, Cats and Sport. 
High WOOD, Conn., Sept. 11. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Hearst's yellow dispenser of manufactured facts editorial- 
ly imparted some startling information on September 4. It 
runs like this: "You hear a cat mournfully howling on 
the fence, the least musical of all created things. Part of 
the interior of that cat is necessary that the great violinist 
may produce his beautiful music." Now, as catgut used 
on violins is prepared from the intestines of sheep, U 
would seem that Hearst's natural history classes must be 
led somewhere astray by the above teaching. Instructively 
the writer of that editorial ranks "about as the backyaid 
cat ranks musically." 
As the editorial was intended to expound a moral prin- 
ciple, it seems somewhat out of place, anyhow, in the 
columns of a sheet which apparently values the intelli- 
gence of its readers, just high enough to palm off a piv;- 
ture of a 3'acht as Shamrock which has two sets of 
spreaders, and looks suspiciously like Constitution. 
In the same issue with the "backyard cat," fully one- 
third of the front page is given over to the important and 
intellectual announcement that "Jeff Will Fight Munroc." 
Some of the type is nearly four inches long, and ought to 
tempt the appetite of a goat at 500 yards. The heading 
extends entirely across the page. Such a delightful mix- 
ture of ink, misinformation — and sluggers! 
And this sheet, which devotes its most important col- 
umns to the doings of bruisers, has the effrontery lo prate 
of the inhumanity and brutality of hunting and fishing! 
Sluggers, good morals, humanity, hunting, fishing — in- 
humanity. Devery in the pulpit! What yellow insin- 
cerity! It is nauseating. William H. Avis. 
Proprietors of fishing •■csorts will find it profitable to ajvcrtise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
All communications intenJed for Fore.st and Stream should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream I'ulilishing Co., 
New York, and not lo any individual connected with Uic impcr. 
Camp'ng on the Manistee. — I 
Prepafation, 
Preparation is one of the many delightful states < f 
existence known particularly well to the angler, ihe 
hunter, and the bridegroom. 
In preparing for these events our actions are comfort- 
ably seasoned with acute anticipation, which is the gravy 
of reality. It is the smell of the cooking to the hungry, 
the grooming of conscience before confession, the unfurl- 
ing to the breeze of life our standard, hope; we are "the 
whole show" of the darky and the watermelon ; the 
spending of money comes easy because we need the goodi. 
It was only three months ago that Mr. C. L. Lockwood, 
of Grand Rapids, Mich., wrote me that his health would 
necessitate my joining him on a camping and fishing 
trip on the Manistee River in August. This letter was 
followed by a second one, saying that if I could see the 
beauties that Mr. Widdicomb, who had just returned from 
the Manistee, had sent to his house I would get sicl<, too' 
That did settle it. From that time until I saw the 
northern light? reliev? the glooH^ of ^ departed tiay in 
