420 
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AU communications intended ior Formt awd Stskam should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 
New York, and not to any individual connected with the paper. 
The Game Laws in Brief 
iS the standard authority of fish and game laws of the United 
States and Canada. It tells everything and gives it correctly. 
See in advertising pages list of some of the dealers who handle 
the Brief. j 
Maine B g Game. 
Bangor. Me., Nov. 21. — Editor Forest and Sireavi: 
The [eeliiig of dread with which residents of this State 
have opened their daily papers each morning for the 
last fortnight has, in a measure, passed away, as the 
number of accidental sliootings seems to have been 
ended, at least for the time. So long had the State 
gone without this dreadful record recurring to anyone's 
mind, that to have two or three so near together gave 
one an awful feeling of expectancy, and in many offices 
and homes the first inquiry of the day has been: "Well, 
who's shot for a deer this morning?" 
Not that there has been such a large number of 
shooting accidents during this hunting season of 1903, 
rather on the contrary, but as one fatality in IMaine — 
and another on the border and killing a Maine guide — 
came close to our own homes and kindred, one didn't 
know what to expect next. It is devoutly tru.sted that 
the record will not be extended any further this year. 
Guide George H. Spinney, of Stacej^ille. who was 
so critically wounded in tlie thigh, is reported at the 
^^nsnital in this city as doing nicely. The surgeon hav- 
ing his case directly in charge is quoted as saying that 
he hopes strongly to save the man's leg. although when 
he was brought liere it was feared that they might not 
be able to save his life, and they scarcely dared hope 
for any recovery without amputation. However, al- 
though the wounded man suffers great pain, still he is 
resting as comfortably as a man could be expected 
to with the bones of his thigh fairly .shattered by a 
bullet, and barring unforeseen complications. Mr. 
Spinney will some time be a well man and able to 
walk. 
Guide Charles Berry, of Katahdin Iron Works, was 
exonerated by a coroner's jury of intentionally caus- 
ing the death of his fellow guide, Arthur Wilson, of 
Atkinson, whose name was at first erroneously sent 
out as Wilkins; but the authorities have taken the mat- 
ter up,_ and Mr. Berry is bound over in $500 for the 
grand jury, on the charge of manslaughter. 
A movement has been started among the guides for 
raising of a fund to help the widow and family of 
Wilson, who are, by his death, left destitute, and it is: 
sincerely hoped that there may be a generous amount 
raised for their relief. Wilson was among the best 
known of the guides in the "Iron Works" region, as 
those well acnnainted with it always speak of that sec- 
tion, and had been guiding there for many years. He 
leaves a family of four children, besides his wife and 
mother, and the blow falls heavily upon the stricken 
women, who thus have been cut off without warning 
from the support that they had, for so many years, 
leaned upon. 
And speaking of this matter of accidents, your cor- 
respondent WPS greatly surprised to read, in a recent 
edition of a Boston daib'. a statement made by a re- 
turned sportsman that "the accidental shooting of 
hunters this year is greater than any other season I 
can remember.' T know of several cases reported in the 
Maine papers that never got as far as Boston" Now, 
Maine's record of arridental shooting has h<'^r\ any- 
thing but commendable in past seasons; in fact, our 
fair State has been put to the bht«h many times for 
her unenviable record in this particuhr. It was for 
this reason that the special law appljnng to such care- 
less shooting was passed, although, by the way, that 
law has never yet been enforced by arresting a careless 
shooter — and still, as shown by the season of 1902, 
there seemed little diminution in the number of these 
cases. This year, for the first time in years, the State 
has been comparatively free from "mistaken for game" 
cases, and the one fatality referred to in the fourth 
paragraph of this letter is, so far as your correspondent 
can find out, the only one taking place within Maine's 
borders since Oct.. i. There have been numerous 
suspicious cases, which the imaginative have thought 
betrayed accidents, such as that of the young woman 
who came out from camp and was carried across the 
platform from one train to another. The writer was 
assured that it was a case of accidental shooting; but 
later met the physician who treated that same young 
lady for pneumonia in her camp, far inland. As soon 
as she was able to be moved the homeward journey 
was begun, but it was disease and not injury that 
ailed her walking machinery. It is hardly fair to blame 
Maine with more of these accidents than belong to her. 
and those who have watched the progress of the game 
season this year feel encouraged that the slate has 
been kept so nearly clean. 
The past week can scarcely go down as ahead of 
any other Aveek of the moose season, nor ytt as a 
record breaking week for deer shipments, unless it may 
perhaps be awarded the "booby" prize on both counts. 
More dissatisfied und unsuccessful hunters have been 
returning home during the week than in all the rest 
of the season taken together, according to the judg- 
ment of a man well informed in siich matters, and who 
keeps a close watch on these things. This is scarcely 
due to any diminution in the supply of game. On the 
contrary there is still enough in the woods, but the re- 
cent snow storm, which made such fine hunting for a 
day or two, softened slightly and then froze, so that 
the woods are more noisy than before the snow fell at 
all. if that were possible, and the unhappy hunters have 
been wishing for the time of leaf carpeted forest, since 
then one gets a few minutes of fairly decent footing in 
the early morning, anyway. 
Therefore, comparatively few moose and deer have 
t)een §hippe4 QUt, and the majority of those seona to 
1^0 BEST AND STREAM. 
have been killed on the last snow before it crusted over. 
Some parties have met with success as great as it 
was unexpiictcd, in two different cases conimg upon 
bull mnose fighting, and killing them both, in one 
case tuo cousins oT Olamon, P. D. and N. B. Harris, 
were out on a hunt and were about discouraged, not 
having seen moose or deer for the day, and were about 
to shnoi a hedgehog with a revolver when they heard 
a gre;il noise not far off. Investigation revealed two 
big bulls having a battle to the death, and as soon as 
they gul near enough to make their aim sure, they 
dropped both combatants, and took their carcasses to 
Boston. 
In the other case, two men v.'ent out from Portage 
on a hiuit, Percy Porter, of Presque Isle, and Harry 
Dorman, oi Portage, and, they, too, discovered a couple 
of bulls fi^liting, so that they crept up near and dropped 
them both. 
The luu license law, which was passed ostensibly to 
keep out the Ohio hunters w!;o came here to slaughter 
the g;iui»- liy wholesale, and to hunt without guides 
and to eat ihcir own pro\isions, seems to have kept out 
a few of them, as few of the large parties from Western 
State,* are reported this season. Nevertheless, from 
personal acfjuaintance with some of the Western hunt- 
ers who have come in large parties before, the writer 
knows of several of them who have been here this 
season, an<l taken home their supply of game, and they 
weren't railed pot-hunters, or forest gorillas, or any- 
thing ubjeclionable, yet one o[ them carried home more 
deer than he has in the past done at all times. Those 
who ni*^t lliem found that it was actually a pleasure to 
meet these gentlemen from , who, this lime, are 
recognized as sportsmen becau.sc they pay the license 
fee. From personal acquaintance with many of this 
claFS, your correspondent is glad that he can say of 
them as a whole, that they are law abiding, keen and 
as wfk-ome hunters as the majority of those who seek 
recreation in the Maine woods, and they are willing to 
prove it by paying a license fee foi the privilege that, 
in some other State, they would have to pay for, per- 
haps, as well. B.ut could one get at the exact figures 
the number of those from t!.e West who have taken 
two deer apiece out of the State this fall would be sur- 
prising to those who insisted that "it" would "keep 
them nut." 
If the whole fund received from the sale of licenses 
is applied lo the proper protection of the big game, 
Maine's game ought to be well watched the coming 
year, and one will merely need to look up a warden to 
learn where an abundant supply is when another season 
rolls around. Maine's wondcrtul supply of game has 
increased in spite of a lack of full protection, but it 
can undoubtedly stand a tremendously increased 
amount of protection from irresponsible rifles, at all 
seasons of the year. 
Bangor entertained, between trains, a distinguished 
party oi sportsmen en route from New Brunswick to 
^v'ashinglon. They were Hon. J. R. Garfield, of the 
new Federal Department of Commerce, and Chief 
Forester (nft'ord Pinchot. They had been on the 
Tobique, and returned through Aroostook county, 
bringing with them to Bangor two handsome caribou 
heads and a buck's head. 
Lpaving out the two Sundays between now and the 
end of the month, there are but seven days of hunting 
left durina which one may kill a moose, and a good, 
deep snou is what those still remaining in the woods, 
and goiu}-' in for a late trip, are hoping for. After such 
a storm a I ig increase in the moose record may be 
confidently exi.ccted, unlet^s it is postponed too long. 
Herbert W- Rowe. 
What About the Woodcock? 
Elmtra, N. Y., Nov. 20. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Under the above heading I noted in the last Forest and 
Stream that yo.i wished shooters to write you what of 
the woodcock for this season, now so nearly gone. 
In this section the fall flight was good, and bags of 15 
to 25 cock to two men were common. 
However, the flight did not seem to extend far; say 
from thirty to fifty miles east and west was the limit 
when any good bags were made that T know of. As you 
say, a good shot with a light weight 26-inch l£ or 16 
gauge, cylinder bore gun and a good dog, can kill too 
many of the noble brown birds that we now see so few of 
in a day, if he happens to get into the fall flight. Thus, 
my friend, Mr. E. A. Haley, of Bath, N. Y., and I vyere 
out after grouse; we started !o go through a small piece 
of lowland in the woods. Four woodcock were there, 
the dogs stood, four birds got up and were dead alm.ost 
before one could tell what they were. 
There is no summer cock shooting in this State, I am 
glad to say. Pennsylvania lias the month of July, but 
what pleasure there is in July game shooting I, for one, 
cannot see. 
Referring to the woodcock shooting in the south, I am 
about io take a southern trip, and mean to learn all I can 
about my favorite game bird while there. 
Grouse have acted very q ieerly all this season, until 
about a week ago. They were very wild, would not lay 
to the dog, were scattered all over the country, one,- two, 
and three in a place. 
Within the past week they commenced to act as of old; 
the <iogs could get close points, and when one walked in 
ahead of the dog and sent 31 grains of Walsrode and 
I ounce of No. 6 shot at them from a 26-inch 12-gauge 
cylinder bore gun, why it imde the feathers fly— if they 
did sometimes fly off with the bird. E. H. K. 
Spkingfield, Mass., Nov. 19.— The editorial i;i this 
week's number of Forest and Stream on "Whal 01 the 
V/oodcock?" has struck a note which is close to the 
hearts of most of the New England hunters The passing 
of the woodcock seems almost history nn«, and while 
more birds have been killed this season than fell last 
year, the swift flying little fellows are not n^aT a» plenti- 
ful around this section of the country as they were ten, 
or even five, years ago. 
Some good bags have been reported, ©ne nwn bringinfl 
in thirteen woodcock one day, but thi» was the fwit»«l 
dd^'s woodcock shotting whadi bu trnti kmi mhUlk 
INoy. 28, 1903. 
locality for many years. Time was when S. T. Hammond 
and his dog Mack would go romping out into the cover? 
between this city and the Wilbraham hills and come bade 
at night with twenly-five or thirty birds. But Mr. Ham- 
mond seldom saw a bird which failed to go home with 
him at night. There are a few broods of the long-billed 
fellows raised in our swamps each season, and these fur- 
nish a meager bag in the early part of October. Toward _ 
the middle of the month the flight birds begin to drop 
into the covers, and after the first two or three cold 
nights we have a few days' good shooting with these 
visitors. But they stay only a short lime, and then the 
woodcock season is over. 
This year the flight was scattering, and the warm 
weather made the birds linger with us longer than usual, 
but they were crafty with the craft of the woodcock. 
Your editorial says "the woodcock is so easily killed 
and flies so slowly * * * that he does not have half 
a chance for his life." I wish that the man who wrote 
that could come up here and go through a beautiful cover 
just over the Connecticut line with us. He would see 
old Dustaway and his mates working through the pret- 
tiest cover of New England alders that he ever saw, and 
he would hear an occasional woodcock whistle up from 
under the nose of som.e staunch old dogs and give the 
most beautiful exhibition of cockscrew flight that he 
could wish to see, and if he stopped one out of three birds 
we would take our hats off to him and say that he was 
a shot among shooters. 
This fall the woodcock have been in fine condition — 
the few which have been found. One killed last week, a 
beautifully feathered cock bird, weighed 8 ounces. The 
young birds have attained their full growth. Up here wc 
blame the people in the north woods and the southern 
corn fields for the growing scarcity of our woodcock. 
While at the Rangeley Lakes this fall reports were heard 
on all sides of the large number of woodcock in the 
covers, and since then people in that section have written 
of bags of twenty and twenty-five birds killed in a day. 
These are the birds which would naturally drift into the 
Massachusetts cdvers in their flight to the south, and 
these big bags are the chief cause of the passing of the 
woodcock with us. Of the slaughter of the king of the 
sporting birds in the south, your southern correspondents 
will have much to say, both for and against, but we New 
Englanders hope that it will be mostly against. 
Click. 
New York, Nov. 20. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 
i'.ave been out for woodcock, commencing October 14, 
with the following residt: 2, i, 7, T, 4, 6, 4, 4, 3, 6, 2, and 
the last time, November 18, when I got 4, making a total 
of 44 birds killed within twenty-six miles of New York 
City Hall. I know of two other gunners that hunted in 
the same vicinity with about the same success. 
I can say that 1 found as many birds as I have any year 
in the last twenty years, but surely not as many as when 
I commenced, fifty-two years ago. E. S. 
North Carolina Game and Fish 
Rai.etgh, N. C, Nov. 18. — The hunting season in 
North Carolina has so far been unfavorable, the weather 
during November having been unusually dry, and for the 
most part warm, with temperatures on some days as 
high as 75 in the shade. Some good bags of partridges 
hrive been made, however, though the birds are mainly in 
thickets along the streams, many of the streamlets being 
quite dry. It is found that even yet a number of the 
birds are not grown. This w^as the case last year also. 
Many sportsmen hold the view that it would be better to 
have the shooting season begin December i, and last three 
months. In Mecklenburg county there are only two 
months of open season — December and January. Arrests 
have been made there of persons violating the law by hav- 
ing birds in possession. 
The portection of partridges this year, under the Audu- 
bon law, is found to be very satisfactory for the first 
year's operation of the new Audubon law. There are 
complaints in some counties by local sportsmen that non- 
residents are violating the State game laws. As yet there 
are wardens for only about fifteen of the ninety-seven 
counties. The Governor issues commissions to these upon 
(he recommendation of Gilbert Pearson, the secretary of 
the State Audubon Society. The law is generally very 
well received and prosecutions under it for the killing of 
partridges and turkeys are having a good effect. 
There is plenty of big game in the eastern counties: 
deer shooting is good, turkeys are quite abundant, and 
some bear have already been killed. Newberne is quite 
a center for sportsmen. There are large lakes of fresh 
water owned by the State, not very far from there, which 
afford not only fine shooting for ducks, but also give 
sportsmen a good opportunity to find gaine in the woods 
surrour'-ing these waters. Hyde county is also a capital 
place for shooting large game. As yet the duck shooting 
on the sound has been poor, owing to the warm weather. 
It seems to be certain that more sportsmen from the north 
will be in the State this year than ever before. Many 
have leased lands for the hunting privileges, though in 
some counties this sort of thing is entirely unknown. 
Partridges are, in the last few years, more and more 
acquiring the habit of taking to trees, this being certainly 
the case in this section of the State. There never was 
so much food for birds before. Not only is there a large 
crop of natural food this season, but the acreage in peas, 
of the kind known as the cow pea, is by far larger than 
ever before in most parts of the State. Questions are 
frequently asked the wrjter as to the best places in the 
State to visit for partridge shooting. It would be very 
difficult to designate such points, as the shooting is cer- 
tainly good in at least fifty counties west of the moun- 
tains, there not being a great m.any birds west of the 
blue ridge. 
The fishing this season hss been verv crnod on the coast, 
particularly of the troitt, which are so highly prized north 
One of the largest trout ever taken in the State was 
caughl this wfek near the mouth of Neuse River. It 
weighed sixteen pounds and was sent to New York upon 
a special order. 
Some very good work has been done in the way of fox 
chasrs this season. Ther^ are sonte good packs in several 
«l ih« mil 9t ||€ ^st hmg Wi Q\mM i m 
